NetApp AFF - All Flash Reviews

It uses multiple protocols and has all the implementation protocols that other products do not. We use CIFS.

We needed something faster than NFC, and we now have a 30 second latency, down from 60 seconds.

It’s too early to know the features exactly, as we get what we need. We do need, however, more training, which NetApp wasn't able to provide.

We have two devices, and have been using them for two weeks so far. We use it for VDI and Citrix. At the moment we are thinking of putting other workloads onto them.

We've had no issues with deploying it.

It's stable and we've had no stability issues.

It scales as we can just plug in more devices.

Customer service is great.

No matter the time of day or night, technical support will always try to help.

We ran VDI on EMC for five years, and it ran out of performance so we had to offload. We then decided to turn to NetApp AFF.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy, but we had a few problems implementing the devices due to a lack of training and the fact that it was a very urgent implementation.

We had great support from NetApp, but we did not do too much training. We have good knowledge of NetApp cDot. It took us a few days to install and configure.

We looked at XtremIO, Dell, Pure Storage, and Nutanix. We already have a NetApp environment, so it met our needs, and it was an urgent decision. There was no option, and we didn’t want to change back to block storage.

The flash pool and flash cache features are most valuable to us because they automate storage tiering combine HDDs and SSDs.

It's highly integrated with VMware and it's very fast. We have reduced latency from 100 milliseconds to just 1 millisecond.

8.3 is not as stable as 7-Mode as it gets stuck every once in a while.

We've used it for three to four months for OLTP and our Oracle database.

We've had no issues with deployment.

8.3 gets stuck every once in a while.

It scales to our leads.

9/10

We moved because of the latency.

It's easy. If you know NetApp, it’s actually easier than 7-Mode.

We did it in-house.

We didn't evaluate any other options.

It makes things fast, but not as fast as IBM flash. Try it on real loads before you buy.

• Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3.1
• Great storage device
• It can handle higher workloads and has faster response times.

The function I like best on the NetApp cluster is the ability to move from a switchless cluster setup to a switched cluster setup without any impact on performance or availability. We did this recently during a normal workday with zero impact -- quite impressive, I must say.

We were able to seamlessly go from a switchless cluster to the AFF. We did it with zero downtime, it was done during a normal workday without maintenance, and it had no impact on performance.

I don’t like to the monitoring systems available from NetApp as they do not give me the proper insight into performance problems which might occur. Recently, NetApp brought out their Graphite and Grafana tools in Harvest. To have all the metrics available in Graphite or Grafana is a really cool improvement.

We've been using it since March for our functional testing and QA. We use our Netapp AFF in a cluster mode setup in combination with a flashpool NetApp. This Netapp cluster is used to serve our QA environment. Whenever we have machines which demand high IO or low latency we move them into the Netapp AFF volumes.

We only need one person maintaining it, and it’s very stable. There’s been no crashes with the new 8.1 Cluster Mode.

It is scaling to our needs.

8-9/10

8-9/10

This is the first all-flash product I've used.

It's a straightforward Next > Next > Finish setup, like Windows.

We did it with a vendor who were 9/10.

We performed a good comparison between it and EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR, and decided to use NetApp. We chose NetApp because we had used them before and we know how to troubleshoot it. Also, no other vendor offers the cluster mode and isolation of the performance through virtual machines.

Just go for it.

• Clustered Data ONTAP for our VMs
• Search efficiency
• Unified storage multi-protocol 
• We went from fiber channel to NFS and we had to buy a new controller.

We were able to migrate from a flash pool to AFF very effectively and efficiently.

They need to decrease the latency and to improve the transmission in PNE STE using compression. We need to add a non-AFF note to do this at the moment.

We've used it for six months for our Oracle databases.

We've had no issues with deploying it.

It's very stable.

It scales to our needs.

10/10. I ask for Jeffrey who works at NetApp.

We used a flash pool, and switched to improve performance.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We implemented it through the NetApp team, who were good.

No other options were evaluated.

Before buying, look at the migration plans. Try it and buy it.

We have a vast NetApp experience, so the fact that it can be managed like the others is great. It has the most consistent performance for storage for VMware. We were also specifically looking for an all-flash system.

It took only a very short time to implement, as it was live just a few hours afterwards. It also integrates well with our environment, specifically with disaster recovery, high availability, management, performance, and historic and current performance metrics.

Most of the things we were waiting for are already in this version, so I’m not really waiting for any new features. It could improve on the initial learning curve, as it can be steep.

We've been using it for one-and-a-half months with 1,500 VMs exclusively as the VMware backend. It's a mix between Windows and Linux-hosted OS. We've been running clustered Data ONTAP since April 2014.

We've had no issues with deployment.

Thus far, it’s 100% stable.

Scalability is quite good in an NAS environment, and in a SAN it's good enough.

Technical support is very good, 8/10.

We also have IBM products, but we chose NetApp instead because IBM does not have the necessary plugins for integration with vSphere.

If you are new to NetApp, it is a bit complex, but if you know the system, it is quite simple. There is definitely a learning curve, but every NetApp system works the same, so if you know NetApp, it’s quite easy.

It performs like we expect and is stable. Always do a proof of concept, and if you go with AFF, especially for a VMware environment. Also, opt for OnCommand InSight software for performance metrics and recommendations.

Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3b3 is valuable. Also, valuable is the easy migration between our old NetApp solution and this one. It was painless, as there was no downtime and we saw immediate results.

Lower latency means faster end products. From development to the end, it now takes less time to compile a product and export it. The whole process of compilation, builds, and exports takes a lot less time. So instead of 10 builds per day, I can do three times as much.

Knowledge base on the internet needs improvements so that I can find my own solution for stuff. I'd also like better monitoring apps or software.

We've been using it for about six months for low latency and critical loads.

10/10

It's very scalable.

8/10

8/10

Before this we were using 7-Mode and other NetApp FAS products. We upgraded for speed and newer features.

The initial setup was really easy. It took three days to set up once we got it.

We used a vendor team with in-house personnel. The vendor team were 9/10.

8/10

• HP 3PAR 7400
• XtremIO
• Nutanix
• SimpliVity

We chose NetApp for a mix of reasons -- the price was great and also because we were working with NetApp before. It was really easy to migrate everything and keep everything using NetApp technology.

It's good, but not perfect. If you are already working with NetApp, this is the very clear choice.

It's great that software monitoring is all in one place instead of in different modules. It also provides us with real-time metrics.

We went from a FAS 2040 to an AFF 8040, and the evolution has blown us away. The deduplication technology that it gives us means that we are getting more storage for our money. It's a better value than disc drives.

Also, clustered Data ONTAP is valuable to us.

It gives us a platform that is reliable going forward. We only had one outage on the 2040 in five years, and we are expecting similar from the 8040. Our business is growing, so we don’t know exactly what to expect and we throw things at our network that are new. The new flash gives us the expansion we need later on without having to buy more controllers.

It would be nice to see a 1 GB portal for networking on the back rather than just the 10 GB that we can use as a backup. If we have an issue with the 10 GB, we can have the 1 GB cable as a backup while we fix the issue while running them in pairs.

We've been using it for three months for VMs, SQL, file storage, email, some Oracle databases, and SharePoint.

We've not had any issues with deployment.

We’ve done transfers, migrations, data copies in and out, and it hasn’t flinched. It's very stable.

It scales to our needs.

10/10. We haven’t had to use it yet for the AFF, but with the FAS they were excellent.

Technical support is excellent.

We use HP’s servers and are happy with them, but when we upgraded to flash for FAS, we looked only at NetApp and the other options that were potentially cheaper, but decided on NetApp in the end because we were happy with them.

Initial setup was straightforward. There is only a small amount of NFS and the rest of it is CIF, so setup is very simple.

We used a vendor team who were 10/10.

It will probably be within 12 month when we make back what we spent on this product in terms of the storage increase we’ve got. It's given us an increase in overall performance, which means we utilize less resources because it's quicker.

With the networking changes, the costs were £140,000. There were some very harsh negotiations going on, and they got this order 12 minutes before the end of their deadline for their end of year.

We looked at Tegile, Violin, and Nimble. It came down to the management of the FAS itself, and the others seem slightly less mature in the market. It came down to trusting what we know works.

It's quite a jump for us from where we are coming from. Try not to think of it as a complex item. Instead, think of it in terms of what you want it to do and what the business needs it to do rather than putting the kitchen sink in it at the start.

We find the flexibility of having the access protocols all in one box and clustered Data ONTAP to be the most valuable features.

It's quite simple to install and fast to integrate into existing ecosystems. Also, it's very easy to handle the monitoring on an enterprise grade.

For the company I installed this for, their data warehouse system and ERP is ten times faster than it was before when they were using hard discs. We can work much faster on customer situations and requests than before.

Inline deduplication would be great to have, but everything else is fantastic.

We've been using it for six months to help run VDI, server virtualization, OLTP databases, date warehouse, and mail subsystems.

No failures yet at the four customers I’ve installed this for.

It is expandable as you can mix it with normal High-Availability pairs, so it's very scalable.

Customer support issues have normally been cleared up in one business day, so it's been really great.

Normal issues like performance problems and parts replacement are infrequent and are taken care of quickly.

I’ve only been working with NetApp products.

It only took one day for the initial setup of a normal system, including performance and system monitoring. So setup is quite fast and straightforward.

I implement it for our customers.

Partner choice is important when using enterprise storage. They can give you a lot more help when you have questions, train you, and give you other managed services if you need. You can combine this with normal hardware support. There are three levels of partners--

Normal reseller: You order the product and NetApp will send you a technician to install the system.

Professional Services Partner: They install the system and implement a complete solution like VDI environments. They will not normally provide support cases, and it normally reverts to NetApp.

Service Certified partner: They will give you the hardware or replace your hardware (normal hardware service), help you with updates and maintenance work, install the AFF in the field, and they can give you a more managed services background. This same partner can help you with hardware replacement, software hiccups, and problems with the surrounding ecosystem.