HPE GreenLake for File Storage Reviews

My main use case for the HPE GreenLake for File Storage involves running new Chinese block nodes for our non-SAP applications.

I find the speed and the resiliency of the HPE GreenLake for File Storage to be the most valuable features. These features have benefited our organization by making us more data-driven early because of our procurement and supply chain, which helps us to do the transactions quickly.

I evaluate the solution's performance for eliminating any front-end cache and data movement between media as good. I would assess the effectiveness of HPE GreenLake for File Storage when it comes to modern data-intensive workloads as not applicable since we haven't used it for that.

The solution's data reduction technology has reduced our data center power costs by approximately 20% to 30%. It is very important for my business that the solution has independent scaling of performance and just capacity for storage systems, as our industry is data-driven, needing TBs of data to be processed.

I think HPE GreenLake for File Storage could be improved by working more on the cost-wise aspect since we feel it's quite costly. The customer service and technical support are a little challenging, as they need to address many gaps in those areas.

I have been using HPE GreenLake for File Storage for around a couple of years.

The solution's scaling abilities have affected our operational business positively; we have been building factories quickly, and that's where we get help, enabling us to expand our business.

They need to address many gaps and there's an area of improvement in those areas. I would rate the customer service as a seven because of attentiveness; I don't see great attentiveness when we run into issues.

Prior to adopting HPE GreenLake for File Storage, I was not using another solution to address similar needs; it was a new setup.

Before selecting the HPE GreenLake for File Storage, we tried buying some storage from Brocade, but we didn't feel it was much more useful or the right choice, so we went with the GreenLake one. 

What stood out in my evaluation process, both positive and negative, when comparing these options was that it was good. I would describe my experience with deploying HPE GreenLake for File Storage as good.

I have seen a return on investment with the HPE GreenLake for File Storage.

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing is good. We may need to involve more, but we have been comfortable. When we use HPE GreenLake for File Storage, we don't need to buy any one as ours is an OPEX model business, which helps us to do things.

I definitely recommend it; it's an OPEX model, and I would ask anyone wanting an OPEX model to go with the GreenLake storage. 

On a scale from one to 10, I would rate HPE GreenLake for File Storage as eight.

We have HPE GreenLake for File Storage as part of our package with Aruba Central, and apart from file storage, we also access other services, making it a key tool for our organization.

It is extremely important for my business that the HPE GreenLake for File Storage solution has independent scaling of performance and data capacity. The HPE GreenLake for File Storage's scaling abilities affect my operations and business positively, as I see a lot of scalability in the future, making it part of a bundle of products linked to Aruba Central, which overall gives a lot of synergy to the organization.

It's difficult to suggest how the HPE GreenLake for File Storage can be improved because I don't really use the file storage, but based on the feedback I get from the team, no one has ever complained about the solution, which is a good measure for me to say the solution is great.

I have been using the HPE GreenLake for File Storage for almost three years now.

Regarding the HPE GreenLake for File Storage's data reduction technology, it has reduced our data center power costs by about 10%, with a rough estimate based on my experience after moving over to Aruba, and since then we've saved money considerably.

The ongoing use of the HPE GreenLake for File Storage since I joined the organization indicates that it is useful, and the fact that we keep scheduling the renewal every year means it's a key tool for the organization. I would evaluate the solution's performance for eliminating slowness, caching, and data movement between media as very effective, as to the best of my knowledge, based on feedback from my team, it's been a very effective tool for the organization.

Overall, if I assess the effectiveness of the HPE GreenLake for File Storage solution when it comes to data-intensive workloads such as AI, I would rate it 8.5 out of 10, because no one has ever complained; the active users report to me, and none of them has ever complained, otherwise I would have had a big question mark on the tool.

I worked on the testing team for GreenLake Storage. We checked for compatibility with different operating systems and platforms and focused on tasks such as creating volumes and CSV files, end-to-end encryption, etc. We test the product on an enterprise scale and smaller-scale projects. 

We run long-duration IO for monitoring in a space for 48 hours. In that time, we monitored the storage area's behavior in 24 to 48 hours regarding use case capability and all the parameters.

GreenLake is a fast, reliable platform. You can see the benefits immediately after deployment. Alletra and Primera arrays are reliable on data-intensive workloads. We tested two heavy data flows with high data transactions on both arrays and they had great results. 

HPE NVMe drives come in a flash array called Alletra, which is quite good and reliable. Downtime is low, and the speeds are fast. The recovery process is smooth

GreenLake for File Storage provides more security, allowing customized security for different file types. Block Storage can't do that. That's the most intriguing feature I have always looked for in a FlashArray or file system.

The architecture is simple and most of the details are available online, so it's a straightforward system. You can have two or four controllers, depending on your system. You have a number of disks divided between tools. From there, it goes to CFD, and you can create a virtual LAN. 

The file system arrays have multiple nodes, so one node automatically comes up if another goes down. The system should allow the primary node to remain the master node and the secondary node to function as a non-master node. HP has already deployed AI in GreenLake's cloud features, but they should also integrate them into the flash array. 

None of the HP arrays has a single console. They use two or more controllers, making it challenging to manage them all in a single array. If the controller or the console goes back into an embedded state, it's difficult to track or recover the system that failed.

I have nearly two years of experience with GreenLake. I started with the product's first-phase release.

There were instances where the system went down due to heavy IO or intense data flow. If it's done properly, you can recover a system in one to two hours. In severe cases, it can take four to five hours.

It's highly scalable if you're operating in the same environment and architecture. You can connect around 2 million storage servers to the same architecture, so scaling is not a problem. As your business grows, you will want to scale accordingly.

I have used Dell PowerScale storage and NetApp storage solutions. I haven't spent much time with either, but based on my limited experience with those products, I can say HPE is far better than Dell in terms of user experience, performance, and scalability. I don't have enough experience with NetApp to comment. 

Deploying GreenLake isn't that difficult. The product owner typically assembles the physical components. You connect the power and Ethernet cable, then configure it. It takes about an hour, and  HPE will manage everything if you buy it from them. 

I rate HPE Greenlake for File Storage nine out of 10. Regular maintenance on a quarterly or six-month basis is always good to ensure all components are working properly and to preemptively address any component faults.

We use file storage as part of a cluster where all our different shares, like SMB shares and NFS shares, have been configured and presented to the users. Users are accessing that storage for their day-to-day use. 

Based on that, we have different storage containers that are being synchronized with this file storage. On a daily basis, we take backups and snapshots of the entire environment to ensure that everything is protected.

The effectiveness of GreenLake for data-intensive workloads is that it's an intelligent platform. When the shares and the data are not in use or at rest, the kernel processors for the inline engines automatically go into idle mode, thereby reducing a lot of power consumption and overall internal resources.

The benefits of using AI tools, such as AI Ops tools, are, for example, that they reduce security risks, improve our automated routine tasks, reduce human efforts, and increase user satisfaction and experience. We use AI Ops to completely optimize our file storage environment. These are the primary benefits of using AI-powered modules or an AI platform integrated with file storage.

The ease of the console and the ease of the UI interface are very favorable to all those customers, including our operations team. We never face any challenge whenever a new resource is introduced to the team. It is very easy to guide that resource with the navigation, and the complete step-by-step process is very smooth. Everyone is able to adapt to that environment very easily.

For us, the utilization of cache when the data is traveling between media, from any location to any location or within that cluster, was seamless, and there were no issues that we observed. So, the front-end caching and the back-end caching are both integrated with the control plane. With that help, this feature [the global namespace capability] is a consolidated or integrated control plane architecture. And by using this feature the use of that cache is that the cache is very fast. And immediately, when the objects are coming into that cache and going out, the performance, the read-write performance, is tremendous, and there is no lagging or performance issues at all.

The features related to the automatic creation of storage policies and objects, the reporting features, the detailed reporting for information whenever we need to send it within the team or to other stakeholders (showing how much consumption is being used and how the shares are being used), and the alert and optimization policies that we have configured in that environment are basically very useful during our entire operational process.

The performance is excellent using this platform. We never face any issues, any sort of latency, any issues with IOPS, any issues with users complaining about anything lagging or any drops or anything. So, whatever we are expecting for an optimal file storage environment where users access and use the storage as their repository, we are achieving those targets.

Everything is streamlined, and it's a self-directed process. Easy navigation tasks and steps will be completed within the operational window.

To reduce our data storage costs, the most important thing is compression, which is the compression algorithm. With that, we save a lot of storage costs. We are now realizing that we have saved around 25% to 40% of the cost, which we had initially forecasted for this entire environment.

The data reduction technology reduced our power costs; there are definitely these things because data comes to be a part of the GreenLake enrollment, the green energy initiative. So, GreenLake is going to be considered a part of sustainability enrollment. So, whatever we have seen in terms of the overall calculation of the power consumption in our data centers, we have seen a lot of tremendous improvement in cost savings. That is correct.

For savings on the storage cost, it's between whatever we have forecasted. It is not possible to reveal the budgeted dollar values, but we have saved 25% to 35% so far, as per our calculation. Following up with the power consumption calculation, whatever the results, we have observed on a quarterly basis that we have saved approximately 25% of power usage consumption compared to when we were not using this enrollment.

We can make it better if we can put more features for the use of GreenLake in hybrid multi-cloud enrollment. Multi-cloud enrollment means if we are going to use the same scenario as we are using, a single cloud enrollment. Right now, we are facing some challenges in using it with a multi-cloud environment due to limitations in the service providers due to some compatibility issues. So if those things are going to be improved going forward, then we can leverage the GreenLake platform with multi-cloud. 

The most important benefit of using multi-cloud is that we will gain more resiliency on our platform. If one of the clouds, one of the regions, or one of the areas goes down, the users will still have seamless control and similar accessibility to all their data.

We have been using the solution for the last four or five years.

From the overall perspective, if there are performance issues, there will be decreased productivity. There are going to be risks of outages, disasters, and data loss. If we are not going to take care of that, then the overall stability of the environment will definitely go down, which will lead to a huge loss in our revenue and productivity.

From the past so many years, I haven't heard of many problems, and I haven't experienced any critical issues within the entire platform. In terms of percentage, its overall stability is 99%.

The solution provides scalable, easy-to-use, flexible, and easy-to-deploy, easy-to-maintain, and easy-to-upgrade features.

Recently, we added more nodes into the cluster, and everything went well. The process was seamless, and we didn't face any challenges at all.

The solution being scalable and flexible, supporting both cloud and on-prem environments, and having complete interoperability features is very important to our overall business. We are expecting the platform to be more diverse and flexible as per our business needs. If the product fulfills all our requirements, works in different ways, and integrates with different platforms, then we are completely satisfied.

However, if things go wrong, if we choose the wrong product, and the integration doesn't work, or if the platform isn't adaptable to different scenarios and environments, then it could be challenging. 

We would need to ramp up and plan for the client and environment from scratch, and it would be a complete waste of time, money, and effort. So whenever we select any product or technology, the primary factors we need to look out for are the scalability, interoperability, as well as flexibility of that platform.

My team has contacted them multiple times when we had a problem or an issue we were not able to solve and needed help. We immediately got support, and with their help, we were able to fix the issue.

As per the SLA, the service level agreement depends upon the severity and criticality of the issue. For a critical issue, they respond within 30 minutes.

For the support, overall post-sales support, and technical team support, I rate them ten out of ten. Every time we face any difficulty, whenever we face any challenge, their team stands with us 24/7 at any point of time until we are able to fix that until we are able to fix that issue.

Positive

Alternatives to file storage, we have used and still use alternative vendors in other areas and in other environments, which means other competitors' platforms. 

But after seeing the effectiveness, quality, and overall stability we have been observing for so many years using GreenLake, we are planning to decommission those and reconsider GreenLake for those environments where we are going to go with the decommissioning and migration process.

I was engaged when we started initiating the lookout for those production solutions and interacting with the vendors who offered similar types of enrollment.

It is not easy, and it is not difficult. The deployment has moderate complexity.

The deployment took time. Overall, the overall timelines, including product selection, then demo, then testing POC, going with the design plan, then preparing the blueprint, then approvals, then starting with some migrations, implementation, and starting with operations, the overall project took five months.

This is not a one-person job. There was a team of 10 resources, and that includes the resources from the vendor side, HPE's side. And as things moved forward, we added six more members. When we finished and handed over to the operations team, there was a complete team effort of 18 resources during the handoff. It started from 10 and ended when we were at 18.

Operational tasks, backup, restore, patch management, health checks—our operations teams work 24/7 for that purpose. Complete maintenance is required, and we also have a maintenance contract with the vendor.

We worked directly with the vendor.

Basically, we could see the benefits of GreenLake when we started using it, which means that we integrated our cloud as well as the on-premises infrastructure and used GreenLake as an intermediate component. 

For example, in terms of scalability, control, and latency, when going day by day, we saw that there were no performance issues, there was complete user satisfaction, and there were no issues. Everything is under control. There were no security risks at all. Everything is working as per compliance. 

So, based on those benefits, this environment will be completely useful for everyone, including us.

Pricing is very aggressive. Every time when we go with renewals or anything, we got very competitive prices compared to those vendors and environments which we use. So we are quite satisfied with the overall pricing framework.

We looked at other solutions: Dell EMC, IBM, Hitachi. We did demonstrations, isolated environment testing, and POCs. We conducted multiple different sorts of testing, performance benchmark testing, and other testing on those platforms before finalizing GreenLake.

Due to the overall scalability, I can see what others on third-party feedback portals like TrustRadius and Gartner insights. The most important things were the price and performance. Price and performance mean whatever features we were looking for. We tested those features, and we found that this product met all our metrics. It passed all our tests, and the prices were quite competitive compared to other vendors. So, considering all those factors, we chose this.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten in terms of performance, stability, operations, risk reduction, and the overall disaster recovery scenario.

I would like to advise all enterprise organizations looking for a unified storage platform that supports multi-cloud and on-premises with enhanced, optimized features to ensure smooth functionality and overall business operations.

I use HPE GreenLake for File Storage to install all systems for ERP, SAP, and to use different virtual machines for SAP, SUSE, and Microsoft.

HPE GreenLake for File Storage features help improve my organization. I don't have to have different solutions aside from GreenLake, and in the future, I will consider a hybrid solution on-premise and in the cloud.

The best feature of HPE GreenLake for File Storage is that I cannot choose which one I prefer the most. The entire solution is excellent for me. In Argentina, generally, I don't use the solution, as different companies prefer to use storage and solutions on-premise, not in the cloud. 

Currently, I don't use AI in the company. That said, in the future, it may be possible to use it since the infrastructure of the company and the different costs of the solution. I prefer to use AI, however, in Argentina, the cost to implement different solutions is very challenging.

I am using HPE GreenLake for File Storage now, and I have used it for five years.

HPE GreenLake for File Storage is stable. No matter what, the solution continues operating.

In the company where I work, I haven't considered scalability. I am currently thinking about renewing the contract for HPE GreenLake for File Storage and scalability for storage and processing. The company is currently very small. 

I cannot speak to my experience with HPE GreenLake for File Storage support. I have never contacted them.

I have storage from HPE, which I obtained ten years ago, and it is not performing well. For the next contract, I will contract the storage for HPE GreenLake for File Storage and migrate the data or files to the new solution.

In Argentina, the cost may inflate based on currency fluctuations. It can be expensive in the country.

I currently need to store two or three terabytes. I use HP Microsoft Azure. Microsoft and HPE make a perfect combination. 

On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best and one being bad, I would rate HPE GreenLake for File Storage as ten out of ten. I love the product.

We distribute products and in some cases we have to lease Alletra in these products for HPE GreenLake for File Storage. For HPE GreenLake for File Storage, the use case is a surgeon in hospitality. They typically use it for file storage for images because this is health solutions.

The best features of HPE GreenLake for File Storage are that customers appreciate them because they can make availability of the products through the options of service. 

My impressions of the solution's performance across the entire data footprint are good; the solution is very stable, and we don't receive many cases of problems with the solutions. 

In HPE GreenLake, we have an engineer, a technical personnel management, and we feel that this works efficiently since there is always a person that has a GreenLake solution, and they have frequent communication with the end user and with the person in charge of the solution.

Regarding potential improvements, I don't have these details, however, I suppose there are areas for enhancement.

I have had experience with HPE products and other vendors for a while.

The product is very stable, and we don't have any cases that report problems with the solution.

We have a problem at this moment with the prices when customers want to do the change request; the prices are higher than the customer expects. The customer thinks the prices will be the same as the original GreenLake, and now we are creating a new change request, and the prices are high. 

The customer is asking us why we are now giving them a higher price than the initial project, which is the problem when we want to add capacity; the price may change, and the customer has another expectation.

The technical support and customer service with HPE in Colombia is good; however, for GreenLake, people prefer support in Spanish, as sometimes the support is in English. The support with GreenLake is good because we always have an engineer who helps the customer, so if they need support, this person helps the customers find the correct way to get support.

Positive

I am not sure if they used a different solution before HPE GreenLake for File Storage.

HPE has many tools that help manage the solutions for GreenLake and cloud of other options.

Over the years, we don't see reduced costs. Regarding power costs, there is a reduction in the total project with the HPE GreenLake system for the customer.

I am familiar with other file and object storage products, and in our company, about two years ago, we sold Hitachi too. That's not similar to HPE GreenLake for File Storage. The main differences between Hitachi and HPE for their file storage are that Hitachi is more focused only on storage. HPE has computing and hyper-converged; Hitachi is more focused only on storage, so they have specific products with other brands, while our solution is more specific and focused on storage.

We need to do some change requests to add compute units. In some cases, the customer needs more than the initial design. Someone from HPE is always checking how the customer consumes and uses the compute units and the storage, so it works efficiently for the customer. Both performance and capacity are important for the customer. When the customer needs more capacity, we have cases where we are requesting more capacity and processing prices for the solution. There are options that the customer can pay as consumption. 

Overall, on a scale of one to ten, I would rate the solution as nine; there are always some problems.

We use HPE GreenLake for File Storage for running our application workloads and data workloads.

What I really appreciate about HPE GreenLake for File Storage is its well-organized, packaged platform for running enterprise workloads on the cloud. It supports big data workloads and, despite being on-premises, offers subscription models similar to a cloud model. This provides the flexibility of a pay-per-consumption model, allowing me to choose resources without investing in the entire platform.

From my standpoint, the single user interface could definitely be improved. It provides a fast head start, but when dealing with complex situations, it doesn't lead you effectively or offer direction on managing these complex workflows.

I have been using HPE GreenLake for File Storage for about one and a half years.

There are intermittent situations, a common issue for many software systems due to the integration of open-source products with proprietary ones. It's not purely HPE's fault as the open-source systems can sometimes misbehave, leading to internal inconsistencies.

The solution's scaling abilities are seamless and align well with enterprise needs. It's suitable for startup growth as well as large enterprises, and the modular, disaggregated nature provides the flexibility needed for efficient application scaling.

I come from a background with NetApp and EMC, having worked for EMC² before its acquisition by Dell. I'm familiar with Dell storage systems. HPE GreenLake stands out due to its evolution from a standard file storage system to a comprehensive data ecosystem.

The initial setup was moderate; it wasn't extremely easy or difficult.

Pricing for HPE GreenLake for File Storage is competitive with market standards. It provides excellent pricing for massive enterprise customers wishing to remain on-premises while achieving competitive prices to cloud providers without requiring migration.

The documentation requires improvement, and users new to the HPE ecosystem might need guidance from HPE personnel. I rate HPE GreenLake for File Storage around eight out of ten overall.

The main use case for the HPE GreenLake for File Storage is to act as the central hub of the web services.

The features I appreciate the most about the HPE GreenLake for File Storage are that it serves as the central hub of everything.An example of how the features of the HPE GreenLake for File Storage have benefited my organization is that we can distribute the devices and manage them all at once.

I would suggest an improvement for the next release to provide another way to connect people who want to use this system.

I have been using the HPE GreenLake for File Storage for about three years.

I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.

It is very important for my business that the HPE GreenLake for File Storage has an independent scaling of performance and capacity for my storage system.

I would evaluate the customer service and technical support for the HPE GreenLake for File Storage as very good when I needed to utilize it.

On a scale from one being the worst and ten being the best, I rate my customer service and technical support for the HPE GreenLake for File Storage as a ten.

Positive

I would describe my experience with onboarding the HPE GreenLake for File Storage as pretty easy because the support was really good.

I have seen a return on investment for the HPE GreenLake since it was implemented.

My experience with the pricing of the setup process and licensing for the HPE GreenLake for File Storage is that it is easy.

My advice to another organization that's considering using the HPE GreenLake for File Storage is to get good support because you need it for the first steps. 

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.