HPE Nimble Storage Reviews

It has vastly improved the responsiveness of our servers. It adds snapshots to help with our DR. The snapshots are sent across the way into our DR site, so we have DR copies of everything. It’s all around just improved the flow of everything.

Its speed, ease of use, and it has been completely reliable.

They keep talking about doing one-to-many replication. This is what we'd like to see, just to help with data replication.

I think it’s very stable. We've never, ever, had it go offline and we've been using it for three years now.

We've scaled up and have had no issues with that. It’s easy, and it doesn't even take it offline when you do it. It’s pretty awesome.

I have used technical support a couple times and they are very good. They keep going until they find a solution, if you're having a problem.

We were using a different storage solution and we weren't getting the speed that we needed out of it for some of our applications. We couldn't run an SQL server on our old one. It was just too slow. We looked into 3PAR , because at the time, Nimble was not yet bought out. We looked into 3PAR , we looked into some of the bigger ones and decided that Nimble gave just as good performance for a much lower cost point.

I was involved in the initial setup, and it was probably a little complex if you never set up any kind of storage system like that. Other than that, it wasn't too bad.

We had the guy come in just because we had never done it before and their sales engineer really made it go a lot easier.

I'd definitely tell them to go with Nimble. I would suggest that they have the Nimble engineer come on site. They don't charge you for that part. This is just so you can get all the thing set up correctly the first time so you are ready to go when you put it into production.

When looking for a vendor, I look for reliability, the features that we need, and the cost.

• Extremely low write latency (for SQL Server)
• High performance
• Automatic QoS (~60 VMs on single array)

• No more RAID/pools/disk/LUN management
• Our storage administrator got to focus on the virtualization stack 99% of the time (good for him)
• We can run all our VMs on a single array and not have contention/bottleneck
• We consolidated three different storage platforms onto a single, entry-level Nimble resulting in less management and faster migrations

The admin GUI is pretty ugly. It works, but it requires a plug-in. I never had to use it since the VMware vCenter plug-in is so good.

I have used this product for three years.

We have had no stability problems at all. We have had 100% storage uptime for three years straight.

We have had no scalability problems. I’ve scaled once in three years. I bought a new generation array with more performance and capacity and I migrated my volumes while the VMs were still running.

With Nimble, I can scale in three ways:

• Upgrade controllers in the same generation array for more performance
• Add an array and cluster it with the original one for more performance AND capacity
• Add on capacity via expansion shelves

We made one support call in three years and it was resolved in less than ten minutes. It is absolutely the best support I’ve ever used.

We had local SSD, PowerVault MD3200, and EqualLogic arrays. We were not happy with EqualLogic’s performance and scale, so we consolidated it all into Nimble.

Setup was super simple compared to every other storage array I’ve used. Tips are easily accessible. Nimble’s forum, “Connect”, is very active and useful. The guides/wizards to create volumes and grant access were thorough.

All-inclusive licensing (encryption, compression, replication, etc.) is very nice.

The initial cost is high in the entry-level market, but worth it for features and performance.

Performance is on par with all flash arrays if you have 20% of your total data “hot”. Size the cache correctly and it will scream.

We looked at Pure Storage, Compellent, and Tintri.

Run a competitive PoC with your favorite arrays. Nimble will come out on top in performance AND price/performance.

• High IOPS and a relatively low price
• Low space and power requirements: We are seeing a 75% reduction in rack space usage by replacing the previous storage with Nimble. The power requirement is also down by about 75%, which is very important to lengthen the UPS usage time.
• Cheap snapshot and clone: We have hundreds of snapshots in Nimble with no perceived reduction in performance, used as backup.
• Replication: We are building a DRC and will use this feature heavily.
• Compression: We are seeing more than a 15% savings in storage space with compression.

With snapshot, we achieve better IT operation as we have a snapshot before any major IT admin work takes place. This is good fallback if anything goes wrong with upgrade, modification, etc.

We heard from the Nimble pre-sales in 2015 that an inline deduplication feature is forthcoming (2016). What I know now is that this is not the case, dedup is only for all-flash array only, something to do with computational constraint. Well, we are a little unhappy with this news but because almost all the competition (VMware VSAN etc.) is also doing the same thing (inline dedup only on all-flash) I guess it’s not yet feasable with current technology.

We have used this solution for one year.

We have not encountered any stability issues. It has been rock solid.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

The level of technical support is good.

We were using EMC 5200. We switched because there was a forklift upgrade to EMC 5300 that cost almost three times as much compared to Nimble.

The setup was straightforward.

Licensing is very simple and everything is included.

We evaluated other options. We received a competitive offer from NetApps, but they lost on size. They are still a traditional solution, relying on the number of spindles and performance.

Please test first, i.e., get a PoC. The product relies on cache, so streaming data, such as CDR and logs, may not be a good fit, IOPS-wise.

We have changed quite a bit in multiple areas. One area is simplicity in technology, in the following ways:

• The administrative overhead costs are less.
• It has reduced our cost per unit dramatically and that is very important.
• We are getting more performance, more agility and more space for the same cost. In fact, we are getting 3x-4x more than compared to the traditional NetApp and EMC products that we have used.

Basically, InfoSight has been tremendous, together with the support process; the way it proactively sends communication back to the support center, the proactive dispatch of parts, I think has been impressive. InfoSight and the support model really looks very rich in Nimble.

We are fairly happy with the product. I think most of it is definitely satisfying the requirements. But one area, for which we presented our feedback to Nimble, was how we can centralize, i.e., monitor the multiple arrays in a centralized manner, from a single viewer/ single console. Let's say, for example, you buy more and more form Nimble; how can you view all of them in a single console, i.e., viewing it in a single window-pane, such as viewing the health checks, etc. This they have taken up and I think they're going to get back to us, in a month's time or so, is to provide a solution.

The storage can be used in two modes, i.e., in a standalone mode or in clustered mode. In case you are using it in a clustered mode, they are integrated together logically and hence, it is possible. However, in case I'm using it in a standalone mode, they have more than one array, then instead of logging into every single array, how can I get a console from Nimble to view all of them in a single console, i.e. when they are configured in the standalone mode?

It's running perfectly fine and 100% available in the last 18 months.

It is definitely scalable. Of course, every unit has a limit, but it's scalable to 4, 5 or 6x, without touching the base. You can keep on adding the shelves.

The technical support is perfect; very, very good. I love the support forums.

We were using the NetApp solution beforehand. We switched because, one, obviously, we need to have simplicity in the solution; number two, the cost per unit should be attractive so that we can have good business models in place; obviously, the reliability and the interoperability with the product partners, like Cisco and the other compute and network platforms.

We had quite a few issues with other platforms, but Nimble has simplified it quite a bit and they have standardized quite a bit. It is providing results both operationally and commercially. It is very economical with much improved performance.

The setup was very straightforward, and the best part of Nimble is you don't need to have any more storage administrative policy, i.e., even the regular user, like the Windows administrator, can also manage the storage boxes. That's the beauty of Nimble.

It has got some advantages. It sells at a 60-70% lower price compared to NetApp, and EMC. On licensing, it's all bundled. You don't have to buy a separate license with anything. It all comes as one unit, and one bundle. You don't have to really worry about licensing. It comes with everything by default.

We did evaluate quite a few products. We evaluated Nimble vs Nutanix, Pure Storage and Tintri. We also tried exploring the hyperconverged solutions such as Nutanix and a few other products. But we felt that, for the service that we're providing, Nimble is the best choice because we have multiple options, i.e., both hybrid and flash options. It is easy to scale and switch between the platforms. Based on the performance requirements that we have, I think Nimble is the best choice, so we finalized on the product from among multiple other choices.

Go for it. It's definitely a good product from the current scheme of things and the current market trends. We are service providers; we do provide other service models to many customers and have a huge range of customers, so we do evaluate a lot of products, and we do evaluate a lot of softwares/services.

We found Nimble to be very interesting, and we are maintaining a good partnership with them. In fact, it's making good sense for the business models, and it's also meeting up with multiple use cases, i.e., VDI or non-persistent VDI, server workloads, database workloads, etc. Definitely, it is a good product and I would recommend it in the current scheme of things; it's the way to go.

• Ease-of-use: You don't have to be a storage expert to navigate and set up the product.
• Reliability: If there are any issues with the product, their support team calls me before I even notice that there is an issue. They're very proactive.

With our previous storage product, I would probably spend 2-4 hours a week managing it, logging, checking on things, and fixing issues. Since we've switched to Nimble, I probably spend an hour a month doing various maintenance tests. It has greatly reduced the amount of handling that our storage requires.

Third-party integrations: A lot of products tend to come out and support NetApp, EMC, and various other storage managers. Nimble tends to be lagging behind in that space, and it's not completely their fault, but I think they could do a better job pushing for those integrations with various third-party products.

We have used the solution for a little over two years.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues, as it's very scalable.

The level of technical support is 10/10.

We were on NetApp previously. It was too cumbersome to manage. Their support was atrocious, and they were really expensive.

The setup was the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. We had it unboxed, uncrated, racked, and connected to VMware in probably two hours, tops.

Their pricing window was more straightforward than in traditional storage. They have basically guaranteed maintenance pricing. In years four, five, six, and beyond, they don't force you to upgrade like some of the other vendors.

The license is straightforward and it's all inclusive. There's no need to buy different license keys to get access to certain features. What you pay for, and you pay one price, you get it all.

We looked at everybody on the market.

Don't be hesitant, and trust their technology, because it works. Just because they don't have the market share of NetApp and EMC, isn't a reason to overlook them.

• Easy management (and easy management during the lifetime of the product) translates into savings. Therefore, it’s important for us.
• Speed and price: Nimble Storage is simply the most speed and space for the least price. No other product comes close.

We now need fewer hands to manage storage. Nimble has incredible speed and stability.

It’s just perfect the way it is!

Nonetheless, it would be nice to have:

• I need a real API (REST), and Nimble Storage made a REST for me (and all the other customers), so the product is perfect for me! Most of the other roadmap features do not interest me.
• It would be nice to have a ”virtual Nimble Storage box” in the cloud, so that I can replicate data to the cloud (and clone VMs and spin them up). This is in the roadmap.
• I also want replicated snapshots on CHEAP space in the cloud (like Amazon Glacier).

I have used it for more than 3 years.

I have encountered no stability issues.

I have encountered no scalability issues.

Their technical support is the best support that I ever had, and it's free!

We used NetApp. Nimble Storage is a better block storage than NetApp on every single parameter.

Initial setup is very straightforward. Nimble helped us install the first array during the PoC and we installed the rest of the system.

There is no licensing, only an up-front price (and service and support) and the price is cheap for the speed and volume.

We evaluated Violin, and it was much too expensive and not that much faster.

Buy Nimble Storage!

• Simplified storage administration: Due to this, a dedicated storage administrator is no longer needed. Now, we can easily handle the storage systems ourselves.
• Very efficient adaptive flash technology: Even without having hundreds of rotating disks like we had in our former SAN system or having to buy all-flash storage, we get predictable and low latency numbers for all of our storage systems.
• Simple snapshot management: This assists us to manage our snapshots through volume collections and protection plans, and helps ensure that new volumes get the appropriate replication and snapshot plan applied. The overview of snapshot used storage and ease of use when cloning are remarkable compared to legacy storage products.
• Central monitoring and health check via the Nimble InfoSight: The InfoSight portal provides an overview of all our storage systems and their volumes, snapshots and protection. It collects data and creates both automatically generated tickets for any problems or risk of problems, as well as predictions of storage use based on usage trends.

For the most part, we have not encountered any stability issues. But there was one uptime-related firmware bug, which was possible to work around and fixed in a later release.

So far, we have not encountered any scalability issues.

We rate the support as very knowledgeable in the product platform

We previously used a different product. The switch was made to gain a less-complex design for setup and administration.

The initial setup was very simple and after one day of education, all technical staff were comfortable with the platform.

One benefit with the Nimble Storage platform is that is doesn’t contain any software licenses. All functionality comes built-in to the platform.

We compared both traditional vendors including NetApp and HPE as well as upcomers like Pure Storage, Violin, SolidFire, Microsoft Storage Server and others.

Embrace simplicity. You can dispense with in-house deployed administration tools or tricky CLI GUIs. All you need is just a simple and understandable web interface.

Depending on which product platform you are about to replace, you will either just gain far better and predictable performance or you will embark on a journey where you will have to leave the comfort of having a multi-protocol NAS into NFS and/or SMB file servers using Nimble block storage in the backend.

• Nimble InfoSight: Provides deep information about not only the Nimble array, but also some insight into the data that resides on it.
• Seamless OS upgrade

This provides for better decision making and forecasting of the evolution of customer data management infrastructures.

Additionally, the stability of the Nimble OS provides peace of mind even during OS upgrades, which are seamless and non-disruptive.

As a reseller, this product is an easy sell for customers who are price conscious.

This product could improve by adding support for file protocols such as CIFS or NFS, the ability to seamlessly migrate from one volume to another, and the capability to perform in-line deduplication.

Volume encryption must be done prior to occupying data on the volume. A data migration is required if the encryption requirement changes. This could be improved by being able to turn on encryption on previously created volumes without the need for data migration.

Our first customer that we implemented this solution for was 5 months ago.

We have not encountered any stability issues thus far.

There have been no scalability issues. We added an ES1 expansion shelf with no issues.

Technical support is very eager to close tickets. They should verify that the issue has been resolved before closing.

We are a provider of solutions. We will place technologies where they fit.

Initial setup was fairly straightforward. Some understanding of Nimble’s network architecture is required.

This is a great solution if pricing and licensing is a concern.

We evaluated NetApp FAS, EMC Unity, and Pure Storage.

Consider other options if file protocols are required. Enable encryption at the time of setup if required, prior to creating volumes.