HPE SimpliVity Reviews

It’s difficult to find a single valuable feature, because all of the features are good. The key point is the Data Virtualization Platform that allows you to achieve great efficiency in storage use, data management, backup and disaster recovery. I appreciated the simple and quickly deployment, the vCenter integrated management features, the backup and DR integrated and finally, but important, performance that is very good.

With the OmniStack system, we can deploy a system in a Stretched cluster configuration with a sync replication and a disaster recovery site with a few clicks of a mouse; all are managed from the vCenter and we don’t need to upgrade the internet connectivity, because the efficiency data management works fine. Management of the system is simplified and the complexity of the system is reduced.

Backup application integration: The backup actually allows creating some independent recovery points of the VM. It’s possible to duplicate and restore the entire VM or restore some guest files. The backup is consistent because the VMware integration and the VSS integration allows having an “application-consistent” restore point, but the restore doesn’t have an application integration function. So if the VM has, for example, installed an Exchange Server, I’m not able to restore a single mailbox or a single item from a specific mailbox. Doing this requires deploying a third-party backup solution. There aren’t specific issues about this, but I think it could be a good improvement.

Support for other hypervisors: Some our customers have installed Hyper-V or KVM; the Simplivity roadmap includes Hyper-V support with the Windows 2016 release. VMware-only support can actually restrict our business opportunity; it’s a business issue, not a technical issue.

I have been using it for one year.

I did not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues, but it’s too soon, because I don’t need to expand the systems currently in production.

Support is good and efficient.

The initial setup is very simple; the deployment of the entire system is a one-hour, wizard-guided procedure.

The pricing is not cheap but it lines up with converged solutions. If compared with a traditional system, it is important to evaluate all the features. If all of the features are compared, Simplivity is less expensive than a traditional solution. If you compare it to Nutanix, it is important to compare it to a RF3 solution (five-node minimum), because Simplivity can achieve the same protection level with a two-node configuration; OmniStack is less expensive.

The license depends on the size of the appliance and is affected by the CPU power (number of CPU cores). However, it’s possible to use an x86 external server connected to the Simplivity storage using a 10Gb network and exported by NFS, using the power of the Data Virtualization Platform with the external x86 computational power. This supported configuration improves the computational power without affecting the license.

I choose Simplivity after evaluating Nutanix and Data Domain. I chose Simplivity for its data virtualization platform.

Because the crucial point is the Data Virtualization Platform, the key point is the data type evaluation: it’s important to evaluate what type of data will be stored in the appliance. For example, if the data is video streaming, the platform isn’t good because the deduplication won’t will work well. The other key point is an evaluation of the workload to consolidate. I suggest always monitoring the system performance with some tools for defining the CPU, memory, network and disk workload of the system and an audit of the data type that will be managed. With the generic VM data types in our system, we have achieved data efficiency from 20:1 to 40:1.

The cache functionality is great.

Technical support is helpful and very knowledgeable of the product.

The initial setup is pretty simple.

The performance is good. It's stable and easy to operate.

The scalability is very good.

The price can be dropped a little bit. The product should be competitive with other brands. 

The technical support around the world can be a lot more open as you cannot search all the KBs or the community for support. Most of the time, you need to call HPE directly. The solution really just lacks documentation. 

The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. The performance is very good. 

We have found the solution to be scalable and simple to expand as necessary. However, you need to do the sizing properly at the outset.

Technical support could be better as the documentation doesn't help you avoid calling them. You often need to reach out.

While their technical support is good and the staff is skillful, every time you could avoid the need to process a phone call if you could just Google it. We'd like the answer to just be available and easy to find online.

The setup process is simple and straightforward. it's not overly complex or difficult. I'd rate the process of four out of five for the general ease of deployment. 

It's a pretty expensive solution.

Technical support is included in the pricing. 

I'd advise potential new users to ask a lot of the standard questions. For example: what are you going to use within the solution? You need to check the expandability as you need to use the same capacity that you are purchasing. You need to understand if you need a small, medium, or large capacity. 

There are different sizes of hardware. If you want to do an expansion, you need to think about if are you going to expand and where and what you will need, and whether that's in the near future, or maybe three or five years later. That is the consideration you need to keep in mind from the outset.

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

We are in the hospitality industry with 10 hotels, and all the systems are on HPE SimpliVity infrastructure. We have our 10 systems on the infrastructure, such as a huge hospitality application, finance, and material control systems.

I have found backup and replication to be useful. We have a 10 megabit line between the data center and our main site. The backup and replication are very good. Additionally, the solution runs on VMware which is a benefit.

The interface is good but takes some time to get used to.

I have been using HPE SimpliVity for approximately two years.

The solution is highly stable.

We do not need to scale the solution because we have purchased it with servers, with two processors, and 750 gigabytes of memory per server. We have everything that we need and do not need to upgrade or scale the server or scale the infrastructure.

The technical support is good.

When the Dell PowerEdge infrastructure became old we then decided to switch to SimpliVity. We have also used Dell VxRail and all the other solutions that we had upgraded at that time.

The initial setup is a bit complicated. Setting up the networking and other infrastructure can be difficult if you are have not done it before. There are lots of things that you have to take into consideration, and at that time it was quite new to us. The total time it took for everything to work correctly was approximately four days.

HPE did parts of the implementation with us.

The price of the solution is reasonable. We have purchased a five-year license with all the support and upgrades.

My advice to others is HPE SimpliVity It is a very good system, very stable, and has lots of features that we have not seen work well in other systems. All the features work incredibly well with HPE SimpliVity.

I rate HPE SimpliVity an eight out of ten.

We're using it to refresh our retail stores.

It has improved our backup situation by reducing its complexity and improving recovery time.

As a refresh, we've improved our CPU and memory capability which allows us to build a foundation and continue to move forward in our app development. We can release new applications.

• The easy to use interface
• Already using VMware
• A very small package but with lots of memory and CPU

I would like them to add more connection capability, a hub and spoke model, to improve the number of connections that it can handle. That would be helpful because we have a lot of retail stores.

There are certain technical things that we run into. There's a matrix compatibility where, if you upgrade one piece, the rest have to fall into line. If that requirement could be eased up a bit it would be a good thing.

I would consider it stable.

For the most part, for what it does, the scalability is fine.

Technical support is very good.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

We used a reseller. Our experience with them was kind of interesting. CDW was the main partner but they had sub-contracted parts of it out to Tech Data, a move which added another layer that we didn't expect and was not fully disclosed at the beginning.

You definitely have to do a PoC and check-mark all the different items that are in your requirements. Go from there and see if it actually works.

I'd give it a nine. It has pretty much everything there.

We are using the solution for our customers. We offer CW Kolob, Call Center platform, using HPE SimpliVity to our customers as a SaaS.

In our case, we have an improvement in the operatives area because the support for that server space is minimal. For instance, I don't have to be an expert to work with them.

I have a lot of benefits from it. I like that I can create a service as I need it. I don't need new licenses for operating systems. I don't need to ask for server space, I don't need to wait for support, and I don't need to wait for monitoring. 

There is room for improvement in the operations area because the support for that server space is minimal. I want to sell a solution, but not bigger than the one I have. Maybe they can offer more features for more customers and optimize it, but with the same protections that I already have right now.

I want to replicate my business offering in the United States. I want to pay for HPE SimpliVity in Mexico, but they told me that it's not possible. They told me that I need to look for a representative in the United States and make all the payments over there.

We have been using HPE SimpliVity for two years.

It's a very nice solution. It's a complete solution that we are looking for because we don't have personnel with expertise.

no

The setup was very easy, but it is hard to deploy. We had problems with training after the setup. We think that we need at least four weeks.

Training is important before integration. Ask HPE for at least four weeks for integration before they start sending out invoices.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give HPE SimpliVity a nine.

My main use case is hosting in-house applications as well as public applications over the cloud.

With HPE SimpliVity, hosting applications has become very easy and fast.

The most valuable feature is that the product has an inborn backup, which gives a copy of my primary and secondary copies.

There are some problems with the product's stability, specifically with backup, that could be improved. The integration and automation could also be improved. In addition, when updates appear, they are often delayed and don't provide new features. In the next release, I would like to see integrations with multiple OEM vendors and better compatibility with other OEMs.

I've been using HPE SimpliVity for around three years.

The product isn't stable yet, and we are facing a lot of issues. For example, when it comes to integration with multiple applications, it becomes more complex for us to handle, and the security goes wrong.

The scalability is good, but there can be problems with integration and compatibility when patching or updating the product.

I would not rate the technical support highly - we have multiple support cases open without any solution, despite having escalated several times and being told that management is working on it.

The setup was complex, as it has multiple integrations with multiple orients. Deployment took around fifteen minutes to half an hour.

I used a consultant from VMWare to implement the product.

Licensing is available on a yearly basis, with no mandatory additional costs.

Maintenance and monitoring requires a team of between 10-15 people. Before using this product, I would suggest that users check what kind of integrations they're looking for, as an alternative solution may work better for them. I would rate this product as five out of ten.

The product is a hyper-converged solution. We are using this for local databases and application settings.

It's a normal solution and offers all of the typical features of a typical production on the market.

The pricing of the solution is very good.

The solution offers good stability.

There's nothing overly special or unique about the solution.

Overall, SimpliVity has a lot of features, however, those features need to be more precise. It's like a jack of all trades and master of none. It needs to hone in on a few features and really make them shine.

SimpliVity claims to have what you call a compression and dedup ratio, however, in practice, it doesn't really work.

They need to give more controls and more features as far as the backup is concerned.

The initial setup is not that easy.

The licensing could be more clear.

The technical support isn't ideal right now.

I've been using the solution for two years at this point.

The solution is quite stable, however, there's a lot of dependability on VMware. It interfaces a lot with it. Therefore, if there are any changes in VMware, it has to be reflected on SimpliVity as well.

We have not really tried to expand the product, due to the fact that we don't really want to invest more into it. Therefore, I can't really speak to the solution's capabilities in this matter. We're just going to use it and maybe over a period of time, we might just come out of it.

When we had purchased SimpliVity, it was a stand-alone product. Then, HPE acquired SimpliVity. Therefore, whatever support that is there, it is not really the complete, comprehensive support that you would experience with other HPE products. Basically, since this is an acquired system, there are limitations when it comes to support.

We're just customers. We aren't resellers or consultants.

The initial setup is not straightforward. It's fairly complex.

The deployment didn't take too long, however, It was done in about a week or so.

In terms of recommending the product, it depends on what a company needs and it depends on what they want it for. It's a solution-driven implementation. What didn't really work for me, might work for someone else. 

I'm not sure if HPE is very keen on SimpliVity, as I don't really see them promoting this product very much. I'm curious to see if they'll continue with it or not.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a five out of ten.

Our solution is on a perpetual license. The pricing itself is okay. It's not too expensive.

There's a bit of confusion around licensing. Initially, SimpliVity did not talk about licensing for the software. However, later on, when the customers tried to update it, then SimpliVity said that they would have to pay for the update. Ideally, HPE should be very transparent about pricing and the licensing of this particular solution. It's not right now.

We are using SimpliVity for VDI and virtual desktops. We are also using it for some small manufacturing sites.

It has lessened our burden on multiple different products, so they are under one umbrella. This has been economically good.

SimpliVity is simple and all in one.

I don't think it's as simple as it is marketed, but it is a new product. Since it is a newer solution, there needs to be more knowledge transfer out there. The product needs more maturity because of the industry.

It is too early to tell about stability.

It scales well so far. We had to increase capacity. It was able to scale pretty simply, and that worked well.

Technical support has been awesome.

We were previously using basic compute storage.

We were lifecycle managing all our technology, so it was more about stability. We switched for a more converged solution.

Scheduling was a little rough, but other than that, it went okay.

HPE deployed it, but we used an integrator (CCP) for design. Our experience with CCP was good.

We looked at Nutanix and Dell EMC products.

We went with HPE partly because I have history them.

Do your homework.