NetApp ONTAP Reviews

We use NetApp ONTAP for many services concerned with banking solutions. 

The application and the application technology is really helpful to us. We find its use to be really good.

The licensing prices are really high. 

It would be nice if they make it so that one can operate the console without the need for interface-related comments. 

We have been using NetApp ONTAP for around three years.

The solution is certainly reliable. In the two or three years that we have worked with it we have not encountered any problems. 

As we are based in Iran, where there are many issues, such as sanctions, NetApp tech support has not been an option for us. 

We handled the initial setup on our own. 

I feel the licensing prices to be very much on the high side. I do not know how frequently these licenses must be renewed. 

In the three years that we have been using the solution, we have not encountered any problems with it and found it to work really well. 

As I have had experience working with EMC, PROMISE and HP, I would definitely recommend the solution to others. I find the solution to be really reliable and strong. Its storage device capabilities are very professional. 

I rate NetApp ONTAP as an eight out of ten. 

We are using the NetApp solution to host our tier-two storage workloads. We use it for virtualization and as a database for applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and Oracle.

With the NetApp Data ONTAP Cluster, we get some features that are particularly helpful. For example, we can always add to and remove nodes from the cluster. The ability to move volumes online from the storage side, from one aggregate to another aggregate, or from one node to another node, keeps up the performance which helps us a lot.

Especially with the all-flash arrays, we would like to see better storage efficiency and deduplication. In terms of manageability, it would be great if NetApp would add more native reporting tools into the dashboard so that we don't need to use the third-party tool for analyzing our environments or to generate any reports. This would be especially helpful for companies that need to generate some chargeback for the customers.

Vendors in the market are trying to simplify their technologies. They're working to make anything from the hardware and installation to the management of the array, simpler. And I think it would be great if NetApp worked to make the whole process simpler to help customers achieve their goals easier and faster. For example, NetApp could work to simplify tech refresh or migration. Some more reporting tool would be great as well.

It's been stable. We've been using NetApp for a long time and we've never really had any major issue with it.

Scalability is good. The older Data ONTAP 7-Mode scalibility was a bit challenging. Clustered ONTAP is scaled-up technology since you can always add the node to the cluster. 

We have been NetApp customers for a long time. For the most part, we're receiving good support. Sometimes there are situations in which we need help from our NetApp rep, SE, or someone who knows how to escalate the cases for faster support. But our overall experience with their support is good.

We always do our due diligence, whether it's a tech refresh or just moving on with another new project. We compare different technologies based on our requirements. Often when we have a chance, we also perform a PoC. We bring that technology into our data center and then we perform our tests on it. We have scorecards and then we go through every aspect based on our requirements, our customers, and project needs. Then we decide if it makes sense to move on with a new technology or product.

We used NetApp themselves as well as a company called Red8.

Instead of just considering the brand name, whether it's NetApp or any other vendor, my advice is always for a company to define their requirements. Once the requirements are identified, set the expectations and then consider NetApp as a possible solution because we have worked with it and have had a positive experience. If the data is consistent, my advice would be to move on with NetApp.

My usual use cases for NetApp ONTAP include configuring both SAN and NAS services for mail systems, web hosting systems, and also cloud services.

NetApp ONTAP has impacted the way I do business and serve my customers by being a very smart solution. By using the same appliances and thus the same disks, I can switch the volumes between different services. I can also migrate the volumes and clone volumes from one service to another in case we need to integrate more services.

NetApp ONTAP has addressed key challenges for my business, particularly responding to customer needs in terms of speed and capacity. The network traffic in NetApp appliances is very fast, and we can also count on the promptness of the support service in case of damaged or broken disks.

NetApp ONTAP has helped streamline our internal operations and adapt to changing market conditions by offering automated solutions with SnapMirror. It allows me to quickly replicate volumes and services from one site to another.

Aggregating more disk technologies into one has been beneficial. It enabled us to have a single cluster of several storage systems that were previously independent. It was able to integrate them into just one cluster with one pane of glass. We now have a single GUI or control center to provision storage content. We can do that with a click of a mouse or through the command line.

The specific feature of NetApp ONTAP that I have found most valuable is SnapMirror. The feature that allows me to replicate volumes from one site to another and the possibility to reuse all the storage appliances by aggregating them into one cluster are also valuable. For instance, I can do some storage tiering and move volumes from SAS to SATA or from SATA to SAS disks, effectively tiering storage content from one technology to a better solution by choosing the capacity and speed.

In terms of areas where NetApp ONTAP could be improved or enhanced, I believe they should improve the volume replication, specifically the synchronous replication in a block-based SAN environment. It should be more resilient to network outages since I noticed that it suffers a lot from network gaps at the moment.

I have been working with NetApp ONTAP since 2012.

Their technical support is excellent. However, the support from India is a little rigid. They tend to work with a checklist and are not very smart and flexible when it comes to specific issues. The generic level 1 engineers have a very basic knowledge of storage.

Positive

I believe NetApp ONTAP offers the best return on investment among all storage vendors, due to the possibility of doing a technological refresh, such as changing a motherboard instead of the whole storage while keeping the same disks and chassis.

Before choosing NetApp ONTAP, I considered competing companies like Dell Technologies, particularly their Dell Compellent appliances. However, we experienced many service outages when deploying highly accessed services. NetApp proved to be the best solution in terms of cost, service accessibility, and service continuity.

The NetApp ONTAP capabilities that differentiated it from other solutions I evaluated include the ability for a single NetApp storage to offer both NAS and SAN services with the same reliable infrastructure. In contrast, Dell Technologies only concentrates on SAN services and block-oriented services.

The evolving cybersecurity landscape and proliferation of artificial intelligence have influenced my technology decisions. NetApp ONTAP offers many cybersecurity solutions. There is a solution that we haven't released yet or haven't put into production, but it is present, and we can surely count on it when we need it.

The goals for my next technology investments regarding NetApp ONTAP don't depend on me since I'm not making any decisions for the future. However, I see that NetApp ONTAP is open to any technologies, and they do this very well.

We definitely have plans to expand how we use NetApp ONTAP in the future. We plan to expand the infrastructure for mail, cloud, and web hosting services. We can do a technological refresh very quickly.

I would rate NetApp ONTAP a ten out of ten.

My use case for the solution includes both business and personal aspects. Personally, I run a lot of file and storage activities at home, managing database operations, and I prefer using NetApp as my backend storage to store data in the cloud instead of relying on third parties storage. 

For the business case at my company, we utilize it effectively, and I support it myself by troubleshooting NetApp issues. In our organization, we mostly use NetApp ONTAP. We also use some features that come with NetApp, such as Cloud Insights and Systems Manager.

NetApp ONTAP has addressed key challenges for our business, especially because our cloud organization provides technology for customers. Our clients have requested multi-protocol support over the last few years. Before NetApp ONTAP, we had services that only supported a single protocol. Now, we have a product that allows customers to launch a single service usable by multiple and different clients, rather than needing to deploy two different products. That's the main game changer for us.

NetApp ONTAP has significantly improved our customer satisfaction and enabled faster service delivery at my organization. It makes it easier to launch and scale for customers. It performs better than other storage systems we've had before, and it supports multiple protocols. Big enterprise customers want storage systems that accommodate various client machines, including Linux, Windows, or Mac. It helps ensure that users can access the same backend effortlessly. Previous services were limited to a particular technology focus, but with NetApp ONTAP, this is no longer an issue, leading to a big win for us.

In choosing NetApp over other vendors, the primary reason was its accessibility and integration capabilities. It works well across various machines, whether they are Windows, Linux, Mac OS, or different types of servers. The hybrid usage is also beneficial for backups and disaster recovery, whether on-premises or in the cloud. I utilize the SnapMirror feature for disaster recovery, and its multi-availability zone support allows customers to launch in different zones to maintain access to their data even if one goes down.

When considering the evolving cybersecurity landscape and the increase in AI, NetApp ONTAP stands out with its own security features. It offers SnapLock for extra security and integration with Active Directory for user authentication. It helps manage secure access for customers in their organization while ensuring that users can authenticate using their username and password. We have never encountered any security issues because NetApp ONTAP includes security defenses built into the service, allowing end users to secure their data effectively.

NetApp ONTAP has absolutely been a game changer for our organization. We support and use different storage services, but this is the first time we have a service and storage that supports multiple protocols, such as SMB, NFS and iSCSI. It has been very helpful, especially for big enterprise customers that want to use these protocol services. It has been a big game changer for us and a big boost over the last few years.

The best features of NetApp ONTAP that I appreciate include its security and compliance aspects. It supports Active Directory for access authentication, requiring users to be domain members authenticated by the domain administrator. There is also antivirus integration for added protection. NetApp ONTAP complies with numerous certifications, such as PCI and HIPAA, which are critical in our industry.

NetApp ONTAP supports different protocols and gives very good performance. It scales very well and can integrate with different client machines. It also works well for backup and disaster recovery.

They can make it more accessible to individuals beyond just enterprises. Many everyday users gravitate towards storage solutions such as Google Drive or OneNote, so making NetApp services more user-friendly for everyone would be beneficial.

They could focus on making it more user-friendly. Currently, many users need a certain level of NetApp knowledge to operate it effectively, often relying on command-line interfaces that demand IT or technology skills. While there is a GUI available through Systems Manager, a lot of management still occurs at the command line, so enhancing the GUI for better usability could be a key focus area.

For our next technology investments, I believe that the AI aspect will be significant. Given the current landscape, many companies are investing in artificial intelligence, and we aim to do the same. I envision having AI or some form of service integrated with our NetApp ONTAP solution in the coming months or years to facilitate easier data searches for end users.

I've been using NetApp ONTAP for three years. When we launched it in my organization, I started supporting it.

There's always room for improvement for every service. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

It scales very well for me. I always use it, and I've enjoyed using it. It has very low latency. It gives the maximum throughput possible. I would rate it an eight out of ten for scalability.

We have 500 to 1,000 users. Our clients are small, medium, and enterprise businesses.

My experiences with NetApp's support team have always been very positive. Their engineers know their stuff and perform well, so I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Positive

When it comes to return on investment and time savings, personally, I've saved a significant amount of time because of NetApp's multi-protocol support. I don't need to set up different services for Linux and Windows. Considering this, I would give it a nine out of ten.

The price could be a little bit cheaper, but you get what you pay for. I would rate it an eight out of ten for pricing because it reflects the quality of the service offered.

We work directly with NetApp ourselves to expand and add different features. There are a lot of features that we add on top of NetApp based on our customers' requests. We talk to our customers and ask them what else they would like to see. If it is a feature demanded by multiple customers, we work with NetApp to see if such a feature can be added to the service itself.

Overall, I rate NetApp ONTAP a nine out of ten. To elevate the solution to a ten, I believe adding AI integration would be crucial.