We are in the health industry and use this product for block storage. We have VMware hosted on our Pure FlashArrays and we have a Citrix environment. We also have Oracle running as our SQL database. Our VMs run from Pure.
We have also done a couple of PoCs with the Blade solution for using the file share system.
One of the requirements from our developers and test and development team is that from time to time, they want to clone the production environment. We are able to accomplish this within seconds, using a script. This is one of the best parts that I have seen. This feature is not available with other storage solutions.
Performance-wise, it is giving us a very good result.
We are happy with the data compression and deduplication capabilities.
The interface is user-friendly and very easy to use.
Taking a snapshot and cloning data is very easy to do. We can create a script and it will clone the environment. Similarly, we can replicate the environment from one site to another site, and we can restore the environment where we choose.
The management features are well organized and they have a very good dashboard. For example, I can see all of the utilization and it has port monitoring capabilities. With other storage vendors, multiple tools are required for this, and there is an additional charge.
Data reduction is an area that needs improvement. There is a garbage collection service that runs but during that time, system utilization increases.
Integration with VMware tools can be improved.
The reporting can be better.
We have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for between five and six years.
This is a very stable product and we haven't had any downtime. We use this product extensively and I have seen that we have a 90% I/O load in our environment.
This is a flexible system that is easy to scale.
We initially purchased two FlashArray systems. One of them was small or midsized, and the other was high-end. Then, later, we started upgrading. As per the Everygreen contract, we get free upgrades. Every three years, we get a new controller upgrade, free of cost.
We have also upgraded our capacity and now everything is on the X series. We have four FlashArrays in total and all of our database users are connected to them. The infrastructure and database teams are directly involved with it.
The response from the technical support team is very good. We have not found any difficulties with their ability or engagement.
We have worked with solutions from HPE, IBM, and Hitachi. We don't work with any of these vendors now. We switched because Pure storage is much easier to manage. It is also more stable and it is very easy to work with.
For example, there is no shutdown procedure. If you want to power down the environment then you just unplug the power and that's it. Once you reconnect the power, it is up. With legacy storage, there is a shutdown procedure. You have to shut down the host, then the SAN switch, then the storage.
With legacy storage, there is also a procedure to bring it up. You have to power up the enclosures, then the controller, then the SAN environment, and then the server. We had to follow a long set of steps with more dependencies.
After a power outage, the storage devices from the other vendors did not always come back online. For example, we implemented a PoC with the IBM FlashSystem and a power outage occurred. The management tool crashed and did not come back up. We had to wait for IBM engineers to come and fix the issue. Whereas, with Pure, when the power came back on, the system came back online immediately.
The other storage systems were not as user-friendly. For example, I had a Hitachi G600 and I wanted to extend the block capacity. I had to spend between 30 minutes and one hour to complete it. It's quite complex. With Pure, that would be taken care of in seconds by going to the console, selecting the volume, and performing the reset.
The initial setup is straightforward and very easy.
The day that we received the box, we unpacked it, racked it, and configured it. The next day, we were able to utilize it for production.
Upgrading the hardware, such as performing a controller upgrade, is a seamless process. We are planning to do a major upgrade and it will be done on the fly.
We engaged Pure to assist us with our implementation, and our experience with them was very good. The technical team came onsite for the deployment. If we have any problems then they will return to our site to help.
Only one person is required for deployment and maintenance.
You can pay extra for Evergreen support, which gives you free upgrades when new features are introduced.
We completed a PoC with most of the leading brands.
My advice for anybody who is considering this product is that I can recommend Pure. We were the first customer for Pure Storage in the UAE. It's stable, reliable, and you can trust it.
The biggest lesson that I have learned from using Pure FlashArray is that it's user-friendly, easy to manage, and very flexible. You can scale out and it's easy to upgrade. The upgrade process is not complex and it can be done on the fly, without any disruption.
My main complaint is that the garbage collection mechanism draws heavily on the resources. They have integration with VMware tools, although they can improve it slightly, and I would also like to see some improvements in the reporting.
We have been using it heavily and all of our people are happy with it. This includes the DBA team. Whenever we have a requirement of it, it's very easy and it can be done within seconds. With our previous storage solutions, we had to spend more time looking into problems and they were not user-friendly.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
I work for one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan. We deploy Hitachi Virtual Storage in our primary data center and our remote disaster recovery site.
It is used for all banking applications like credit and debit card transactions, reconciliation, general ledger, etc.
The bank has thousands of users accessing more than 2,000 branches across the country. Everyone who accesses our core banking applications and online banking indirectly uses the Hitachi storage platform in our data center.
The biggest benefit of the Hitachi platform is the 100 percent storage uptime. It's also highly cost-effective.
Hitachi is far superior to other storage platforms I've used. The architecture is strong. The management software is more powerful and easier to use. The Hitachi platform performs well. IOPS is a commercial operation's main concern. Hitachi has good IOPS numbers.
IOPS, latency, and availability are the essential metrics for a commercial bank with thousands of branches. We don't worry about our banking applications because Hitachi passes all the tests for performance and availability.
We've only faced some minor issues. For example, the documentation of some features isn't as detailed as we would like.
I started using Hitachi in 2014.
The Hitachi platform is highly stable. We've experienced minimal hardware or software failures. They promise 99.999 percent uptime, and the platform has lived up to that claim. It's essential because a commercial bank needs to operate 24/7. Downtime is unacceptable for a commercial organization. The hardware is robust, and the backend software is stable.
It's easy to upgrade and expand the Hitachi platform.
I rate Hitachi support nine out of 10. Hitachi has local support teams that are available 24/7. They are all highly qualified and responsive. They understand the solution they provide, and it shows.
Positive
I have been in this business for more than 20 years. Before Hitachi, I worked with storage solutions by various brands, including NetApp, EMC, and IBM. The competing solutions are also good, but they may not be suitable for all use cases.
Deploying the Hitachi platform is simple. I have extensive experience deploying storage, so it is no big deal for me. Most storage brands have similar features.
We worked with a local partner called Synergy Computers. They have an excellent technical team, and we've worked with them on other projects besides Hitachi.
We've gotten our money's worth from the Hitachi platform. It was supposed to be upgraded after three or four years, and we've been using it for nearly seven without any problems.
I am not involved in purchasing, but my impression is that the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is cost-effective.
I rate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform a nine out of ten. I highly recommend Hitachi to anyone looking for this kind of storage. If you've worked with any other storage vendors, you will see the difference in performance and technical specifications. The management platform is user-friendly, and the architecture is advanced.
Hitachi is always improving by adding the latest technologies like artificial intelligence. Their technology is far superior to that of competing solutions. Hitachi's research team is doing an excellent job.
We can use Dell EMC Unity XT for backing up SAN and NAS drives. Mainly for databases and for file servers.
The most valuable feature is the dynamic cache of this product. It is very important. We have the physical cache and we can boost this cache using disks. All the products are mainly flash now and this is one of the main characteristics which our customers like.
I have a problem because between the Unity XT and the PowerMax, sometimes we need another product between these two products. There could be better integrated and the capacity of the size could be larger.
In the future, if NVMe disc could be used on the Dell EMC Unity XT it would be beneficial.
I have been using Dell EMC Unity XT for approximately three years.
Dell EMC Unity XT is very reliable. I used to use legacy EMC products, such as VNX. This product has a long story.
The solution is suitable for Medium-sized companies. When you talk large, it's relative. Our customers here in Algeria are the largest here but they are only medium-sized compared to other countries.
The technical support is good. Opening the ticket, the management of the ticket is good. However, when we have to use or change parts, it can be more difficult because of the customs rules of the disposability and availability of the parts. We have problems delivering them in the time the parts are needed in some cases.
We previously used Fujitsu and IBM products.
When comparing Dell and IBM they are very similar. Fujitsu is a good product too. However, when comparing them all in their strengths for implementation, the lifecycle of the product, and the support they provide, I would rank Dell number one, IBM second, and third would be Fujitsu.
The initial setup is simple. The time it takes for the implementation depends. From scratch, a new implementation takes approximately three days. If you have to migrate a node storage array, the time can increase, I am not able to give an exact time because it depends on the volume and the nature of the data. We can take one week to three weeks to migrate. However, generally, it takes approximately 10 days when we have to migrate and without migration, it's about two and three days.
We provide implementation service to our customers.
The maintenance is done by the Dell representative in our country.
The solution is very expensive.
There are a lot of advantages with EMC Unity XT, there's no limitation. When you bought the product, the software is included and there's no limitation of the terabyte in the licenses.
I would firmly recommend this solution to others.
I rate Dell EMC Unity XT a nine out of ten.
I work with customers all over demark, which consists of small to large companies. I normally make dual data centers with one HPE 3PAR StoreServ on each side. Our customers are mainly running with failover/failback mission-critical systems.
There's a lot of good features. HPE 3PAR StoreServ is similar to Dell EMC. It is a high-speed system with automatic failover/failback, integrated with Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware. These are the main reason for choosing HPE 3PAR StoreServ in Denmark. We have a very good consulting service together with the product.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ could have better integration into the cloud and converged infrastructure.
I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for approximately 13 years.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a highly stable solution.
The solution is easy to scale. It is normally used for enterprise companies.
The support from HPE is good but slow. The speed of the resolution could be faster.
We use HP Enterprise, Dell EMC, Hitachi, Fujitsu, IBM, and Lenovo.
A lot of the solutions today are very similar. This was not the case five years ago. If some new functionality comes out with, for example, Dell, other vendors will have the same features in a short time.
The initial installation is complicated. The storage administrator needs to be trained or they need to have a contract with someone who can take control over the system. Mainly in Denmark, the customers prefer someone to take control of the system. There are companies that will take care of their systems.
We can do the implementation of the solution.
There is some maintenance that is required for HPE 3PAR StoreServ, such as upgrading firmware software, upgrading the system to a larger system, increasing the capacity, or increasing the performance of the system.
The price of HPE 3PAR StoreServ is reasonable, but buying upgrade licenses are priced very high. There are additional fees.
HPE have have made a new system to substitute with 3PAR. It is the HPE Primera solution. It is a product similar to 3PAR, but it's more converged together with the hybrid system. You can implement it on-premise of the cloud. It has cloud connect functionalities and the market is going that way.
If you want a solution better than HPE 3PAR StoreServ you will be using Primera.
I would advise those wanting to implement this solution to use a partner which has high-scale competencies. They need to be technical experts, both in hardware and software. Customers cannot implement this solution themself.
In the beginning, it was allowed for customers to do the installation, but after one or two years, HPE decided that it was not allowed. It is not allowed today. You need a certified person to do the installation and configuration.
I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ a nine out of ten.
HPE Nimble Storage is used for data backups.
HPE Nimble Storage uses the InfoSight platform and it is useful because we can identify the faults and can analyze the performance. It has many other features. This feature is the best that I have observed from HPE Nimble Storage.
The interface of the solution is good.
Pure Storages have some option, which allows us the ability to directly download that host inventory and volume report. We can receive everything directly generated from the storage itself. We do not need to use some other web browser or something. If HPE Nimble Storage could do the same it would be a benefit.
While we're attaching the host and creating a volume. Afterward, it is a bit difficult compared to all other storage solutions. In other solutions, we can directly search for the host, but in Nimble, the drop-down is difficult.
I have been using HPE Nimble Storage for approximately three years.
HPE Nimble Storage is highly stable. We have not had any downtime due to failures in the three years we have used it.
The solution is scalable.
We have approximately 20 applications running on the solution.
Nimble support is different from HPE support. When comparing some other HPE products, such as Primera and 3PAR, the engineers are different. HPE Nimble Storage has all-in-one support. The L1, L2 will be one direct contact person. We don't need to wait for someone in the L1 to do any analysis. We can receive the analysis as earlier.
I would rate the support from HPE Nimble Storage a 4 out of five.
We have previously used many similar solutions, such as IBM and Pure Storage. I have found HPE Nimble Storage to be a better solution.
The installation of HPE Nimble Storage is not complex because I was one of the engineers who did the installations. We have not had many challenges while installing the HPE Nimble Storage.
HPE Nimble Storage has a controller and we are using active and passive modes. It would be great a great benefit to have an active, active mode.
There is not a lot of maintenance. If we need to expand the solution there is no downtime required. For some other types of upgrades, there will be some downtime but it is minimal.
The price of HPE Nimble Storage is good.
To purchase the solution is a one-time purchase.
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate HPE Nimble Storage an eight out of ten.
