Storage Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Fantastic performance, and reliability, as well as useful monitoring tools
Pros and Cons
  • "From a storage standpoint, NetApp is the number one partner and the number one equipment manufacturer."
  • "They need centralized controls."

What is our primary use case?

We are capable of implementing, migrating, and the configuration information of NetApp. We have 7-Mode and C-mode ONTAP operating systems from NetApp. 7-Mode, which is out of date and has expired from NetApp's vendor. They have created their own kernel for ONTAP, a cluster Data ONTAP. For the time being, they are only doing and providing the ONTAP cluster data, ONTAP to the customer. Customers who are using the 7-Mode data, 7-Mode ONTAP are systems that have not yet been upgraded. Whatever previous series hardware they are using, is incompatible with the C mode cluster data ONTAP. As a result, they are constantly taking care of and having to refresh their customers and providing the solution to the migratory or existing data to the new Data ONTAP system.

I've implemented many customized enterprise levels, and I've also done many migrations. Basically, storage that is currently in use, as well as a SAN protocol and how we are using it for all of our heterogeneous environments, such as VMware, Windows, Linux, and Unix. 

NetApp ONTAP is an operating system, similar to Windows, which we use for accessing the Windows client.

NetApp is storage similar to EMC. EMC is one of the storage vendors; they provide EMC, such as Dell EMC, Synology, Dell, and IBM. NetApp is one of the market's leading providers of SAN and NAS protocols to end users, as well as critical business solutions.

Currently, with NetApp application scenarios you can see that if you have a high,  business-critical application, it will require high IOPs to access this application from one of the storage options listed. Assume you're using an SAP HANA, or any other high IOPs utilization application, such as SAP, HANA, or any other tool. In these cases, NetApp has a solution. They have hardware such as an all-flash disc, which means they can use all-flash storage in between this solution fulfillment. If you have a hundred users logging in at the same time, you are using a business-critical application, it should not include any database applications such as Oracle Database. In such cases, they provide the SAN-based solution from NetApp and meet your NetApp storage requirements.

How has it helped my organization?

NetApp storage is also a hybrid solution. The cloud is essentially in the market right now, but no one is moving all of this data to the cloud.

If the primary data center is unavailable, you can deploy your data from the cloud vendor. This type of solution can also be obtained from NetApp storage.

What is most valuable?

With NetApp ONTAP your storage requirement is met. If you provide a solution to any of our customers, we will first take the accessories. We will collect the necessary requirements from the customers, just as we will conduct the assessment from the customer's end.

NetApp has a variety of hardware and solutions available there. Based on that, they can provide a low-level and high-level diagram and inform customers. If you want to use such a solution, such as a hardware solution and a software solution like this, you can, you can implement it at the customer, and you can use it. Like VMware, we can use it in most NetApp players, most of whom are in hardware and network storage. From a storage standpoint, NetApp is the number one partner and the number one equipment manufacturer.

What needs improvement?

If you wanted to configure the QAs policies right now, I believe you should be technical as well. If you are not aware of such devices and technology, you will not understand.

We will assess the existing infrastructure. If they want to improve the existing storage, not just for NetApp, it will be based on what is currently available and being used.

Existing IOPs will not be compatible with your current user, regardless of who is concurrently connected to the storage.

We'll assess the existing infrastructure, and if they're ready to buy any new hardware, any new solution, we'll add any additional access they'll give solid-state drives. And we will improve the performance. We will increase the number of drives and the overall memory utilization. As a result, the end-user cannot determine the exact utilization of the speed and your IOPs. we'll put it to use. 

If there is a bottleneck in the network as well, we will find out exactly what assessment is now, and we will make decisions based on that assessment. Based on the assessment, we will make recommendations for improvement and provide guidelines for exactly what we need to do.

In terms of the storage, if you implemented the storage one time and if you provided the volumes, you also provided the opportunity to learn. If you provided dials and QS policies, the client and user are not required, and they are not asking for the extension and all of these things. If you configure a quota type of information, or if some of the users are requesting data for a hundred UPR changes before the particular data, particular folder, in this case, we can do the automation involved there.

Until we get the automatic resize working properly, if a threshold is reached out to a specific percentage, such as just 90 percent, or an aggregated breach is 90 percent. This is the kind of data that the automation process can provide.

That is the fundamental thing in our NetApp storage right now. One of the things that are happening now is that a new requirement has arisen from the end-user, such as the desire to create new volumes of new LAN and present them to a specific physical host, a virtual host, a Windows host, or a Linux host. We have to create this information, this script, and just fill it in their format.

NetApp is currently providing monitoring tools. Assume you have multiple clusters in your organization, a large number of containers, and a large number of countries if you are currently using your storage. There's no need to log in to each cluster and storage separately, there is a centralized monitoring and management tool where you can simply log it into one single signup control.

It's as simple as a single click. If you wanted to manage these jobs and run the one-sum script, you didn't have to log in to each and every cluster and storage; instead, you just needed to log in once. With a single click, you can access your own information via someone else's system and manage their command tools from the network, which they have developed.

They could make the access a bit easier.

Every cluster and storage must be done manually the first time,  during the implementation and deployment phases. If it is deployed completely, you won't have to do anything manually. You must perform online on all of these automation and all of these centralized, single controls.

They need centralized controls. 

Not every organization is small, and they are using multiple locations. They are utilizing a number of DRaaS solutions. If your primary data center is down, is it due to any of these hardware or natural environment, natural disasters, human beings, or mistakes now? You don't have to worry about this in these cases. Simply click the activate button on the DR site, and your data will be deployed from the DR storage. There's nothing to be concerned about. It's simple.

You can migrate your existing data right now. As a result, the feature is now being used everywhere, and what everyone is looking for, is on a cloud right now. For example, your ONTAP system manager, cloud-only the features that are combined with that cloud. If you open your NetApp ONTAP system manager control, it will combine the cloud volumes and you can simply map your three-bucket location, three-bucket credential, and jump in your data going to the cloud.

You can either give it a second copy on the cloud network or use cloud data ONTAP. If you've wired your data to the cloud, ONTAP, AWS, Azure, or Google. So it can simply create a duplicate copy on the cloud player as well.

Buyer's Guide
NetApp ONTAP
November 2023
Learn what your peers think about NetApp ONTAP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2023.
746,670 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

My primary expertise is in NetApp ONTAP. I have been using NetApp ONTAP, implementing and providing solutions for the last seven years.

The most recent version is used at my client's location. 

We had an 18, 20 cluster on NetApp that was a near DR solution, primary solution, secondary solution, such as a DR solution, or a long retention archive backup solution with disc level backup.

They have also implemented and improved the solution with a cloud vendor, such as Azure Data ONAP, AWS Data ONAP, or Google Data ONAP, all of which are major players that are partnering with NetApp to provide a cloud-based solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of performance and reliability, NetApp ONTAP is fantastic. If you look at it, and if you go with NetApp now, everything you will get as compared to other storage, NetApp is extremely stable and reliable storage.

In comparison to IBM and Dell EMC. As a result, NetApp is a fantastic tool in my opinion. If you have to do anything, it will be simple, and you will not have to worry about your NetApp data. If you think about it, there are disasters over there, and my data will be lost or something like that, but there is nothing to worry about.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have a scale-out and scale its solution based on the type of information and solution you are currently deploying. NetApp is deployed in many locations. If you deploy the current solution, we can do it as a scale-out and scaling kind of device. Based on that, we can expand the other data size and use it for environmental purposes.

How are customer service and support?

We never contact them, but if we need assistance, such as a hardware solution or a hardware replacement, we must contact them because we do not provide the hardware. They are now providing the hardware. But, if you look at the software part of the picture, I don't want to reach out to NetApp. I'm very capable of doing it every time, both for storage and for the NetApp ONTAP system.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We work with VMware, Storage, and Nutanix NCI solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Actually, complex means that everyone is an expert in a specific device or a specific product. No. How can we say it is complex, or how can we say it is simple?

From my perspective, I'll say it's simple for me, but if you're looking for the first time, no, it will appear to be quite difficult. 

From my perspective, it's simple, because I've been working with NetApp for over seven years and am familiar with its operations, and migration. Based on that, I can tell you that it is easy for me.

If you want to set up primary and secondary storage now, you only have a few days. This is a production idea type of solution. It will only take three to four days. But everything should be in its proper place. We can simply order it. But if you say that, we don't have the space, we don't have the cooling power systems, and we don't have the power supply, it will take a long time to deploy. However, if you want to deploy the storage, and if everything is already in place, it will most likely take four to five days for both site location storage.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is a perpetual license. You are not required to purchase on a monthly or yearly basis. Whenever you purchase any type of solution software license, it should be a perpetual license that is valid for a lifetime. 

When you purchase NetApp for the first time they will provide you with the standard license, or a premium license, and even a standard bundle solution license. If you choose the premium bundle, each license will come with only that bundle.

They are offering the protocol device license for sale. If you want to use a CIP protocol, you must purchase the CIP. If you want to use the NFS protocol, you must purchase the NPS license if you want to use DFC, VME, or FCoE. If you only buy the bundle license now, each license will come in that bundle's bundle package.

What other advice do I have?

NetApp storage is my primary skill; I am an L3 or L4 on NetApp.

I'm building the NetApp from scratch based on what others need, and which one must be used, However, NetApp currently has a pre-deployed ONTAP version, that includes a pre-deployed ONTAP version in NetApp storage. They are assigning devices and hard discs to each of the controllers. They cannot have an operating system based on that request. They have been deployed. Aside from that, we will need to connect to your laptop using this console cable, serial console cable. We simply need to assign that to the serial console.

If you configure the management IP, we can put it in their networks and take the RDP or partition from your network. That is any location on your network. From there, we can simply configure the cluster. We can set these up with the data aggregate, volumes, learn and share, Q3 and quota. If they wanted to learn about the AFC solution, we simply need to configure the fiber channel cables and connect them to the SAN network and cable. If you wanted to create the zoning, analyze, and provide to a physical virtual.

I would rate NetApp ONTAP a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Stable data management with excellent MFS reporting
Pros and Cons
  • "The MFS report is the best feature for us."
  • "I believe that the next release should be a bit cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

As an automotive company, we are able to run some applications on NetApp ONTAP.

What is most valuable?

The MFS report is the best feature for us.

What needs improvement?

I believe that the next release should be a bit cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

NetApp is very stable, this is why we went with this product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

Support is very good. They are available 24/7 and respond within four hours.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used EMC in the past. It was good at the time, but it was crashing a lot. This is why we switched to NetApp.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward as it is done by NetApp themselves and it does not require any maintenance on our side.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

ONTAP is expensive, but most storage systems are now-a-days and everything is included with the license - there are no additional fees.

What other advice do I have?

This is a stable environment that is easy to manage and good to work with - eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
NetApp ONTAP
November 2023
Learn what your peers think about NetApp ONTAP. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2023.
746,670 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior IT-Ingenieur at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
You can achieve a very high IOPS rating with it along of deep customization capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the very high IOPS rating which you can achieve with it."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use NetApp ONTAP for everything. Because it is hybrid, we use it in a private cloud environment and in our shared environment with a very broad range of IOPS requirements, which means we use it as the basis for our VMware environments and as a storage for databases. In the backup area, we use it with HDDs—with the cheaper ones—and for backup target as well. So, we use it basically for everything. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    Unifyed the management, the automation, the monitoring and accounting in the storage landscape. Less administrators in the operation and internal development are able to take care of most issues.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature is the very high IOPS rating which you can achieve with it and the customization capabilities of the storage are very feature rich. 

    What needs improvement?

    I cannot think of any technical improvements or features we're missing right now. The encryption on transport was a feature we wanted, which is supported by ONTAP, starting with ONTAP 9.8. Being conservativ and carefull, until now we use mainly 9.7. Until version 9.7 only encryption on rest, meaning the storage volumes itself could be encrypted. Starting to upgrade to 9.8  we will be able to encrypt the traffic as well between the storage and the client OS. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working with NetApp ONTAP for a decade. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I would say it's really stable. We have almost no downtime because of storage outage. Sometimes the network interface fails, but I have almost nothing negative to mention about the storage itself, with the controller. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    This solution is scalable. We are satisfied with this because, recently, NetApp introduced smaller devices: for example, the C190. One of the complaints we had earlier, within the company, was that small pieces were not available. There weren't really any entry options for private cloud environments, which are isolated from each other and don't require very big machines, but less storage amount (TBs). In the past year or two, there have been small machines as well. This means that in the lower side, the entry side, we have a lot of new possibilities within NetApp. And on the other side, when we have already implemented something, we can just add to our cluster to expand the capacity, which we are satisfied with. 

    How are customer service and support?

    Our relationship with NetApp has been alive for more than a decade, and it's a very good relationship. We have great support and I can't complain about it at all. We also regularly take advantage of the NetApp learning offerings, workshops and trainings.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is easy for us because we have already been doing it for many years. We have a lot of automated stuff around it—using Ansible, for example—and we use templates and skilled professionals when we implement something. These make this solution easy for us to implement. 

    Also, the upgrades are very well planned and straightforward. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We mostly purchase professional services with the products. They are well trained and professional. It minimizes the risk and the time we would need to invest when implementing new storages ourself.

    What other advice do I have?

    We don't use the latest update. We are always at least one release back because we are very conservative and don't want to be the testers for new updates, but this means that we aren't using the latest features. Version 9.9 or 9.10 has already been introduced, but we are starting to use 9.8. 

    To those considering working with ONTAP, I would advise starting with at least Version 9.8 (not an old operating system) because there are some really good features. For example, support for transport encryption: encrypting the traffic between the storage and the clients. Support for this starts with the 9.8 operating system and this feature is very important to have, not only to encrypt the storage itself—the so-called encryption at rest—but also to encrypt the traffic. 

    I rate NetApp ONTAP a nine out of ten. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Other
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer and service provider.
    PeerSpot user
    Data Center Administrator at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    A reliable solution with professional storage capabilities
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution is certainly reliable."
    • "It would be nice if they make it so that one can operate the console without the need for interface-related comments."

    What is our primary use case?

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

    What is most valuable?

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

    What needs improvement?

    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. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using NetApp ONTAP for around three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

    How are customer service and support?

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

    What about the implementation team?

    We handled the initial setup on our own. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

    What other advice do I have?

    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. 

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Virtual Private Cloud Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Scales well with good performance and good technical support
    Pros and Cons
    • "The performance of the hardware is good."
    • "The setup can be a bit complex, depending on the environment."

    What is our primary use case?

    We basically use NetApp Storage as mass storage within our offering. We also use it for backup storage, storage for emails, and sometimes for archiving. Mostly it is actually general-purpose file storage. 

    What is most valuable?

    The solution has very good Snapshot features. Everybody goes to NetApp for Snapshot. Their Snapshots are very good. We use it for local backups. We also have a DR set up. We use Snapshot or SnapMirror for the DR applications. We also use Snapshot for backup purposes as well. Snapshot is the one thing I would say is actually the most useful feature for us.

    NetApp is very stable.

    They have all the latest features. 

    Their support is good. 

    The performance of the hardware is good. 

    What needs improvement?

    We're actually looking at a software-defined version of NetApp. They already have a software-defined product called ONTAP Select. NetApp's ONTAP version for the cloud is called the Cloud Volumes ONTAP. We are looking for the Cloud Volumes ONTAP, an on-premises option. Right now, the only option we have is the cloud and that's only available with AWS and Google. We already had some discussions with NetApp about it. It usually takes two or three months and a lot of money on a software-defined solution. If we gain access to it, we can run it on a virtual machine and it will still give all the features without having to buy their hardware.

    The pricing could be lower.

    The setup can be a bit complex, depending on the environment.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using the product for a long time. I would say we've used it in total for 10 or so years, however, in different offerings. The names have changed and the company also changed quite a bit.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I've been working with the solution for ten years, and I've rarely had any issues. I consider the product to be extremely stable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's good.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution can scale very, very easily.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is good. I don't have any issues with them. Most of my interactions are very, very good except for maybe one or two cases over the course of ten or so years. Mostly I find it very useful. They are very responsive and knowledgeable. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup up is a bit complex within our environment. We actually tweak it to our requirements. The integration for backup purposes, for example, we use NetBackup. However, then the solution that we have is a bit complex for backups, especially if we want to actually do a Snapshot version only. We actually take full backups every day. Our solution is actually a bit tweaked for our real requirement. I would say it is actually not very complex. That said, it is not very easy either. It is somewhere in between. There is some level of complexity in our solution.

    To apply and maintain the product you need a team, definitely. To deploy it, it depends on how you set up your environment. In our environment, one person can deploy it because we have most of the tasks automated. For us, it is not very difficult to deploy. however, then you also need the dependency. For example, to build a network, you are required to connect the device to the network, and then to set up the backup. You need a team as it requires some integration with the network, with the backup, and whatnot. There are many, many things to do.

    In our environment, we only need two people. That is due to the level of automation we have. To operate it, you also need a team. How big the team is depending on the service level. You may have to have people in shifts. In our team, we have many people. It's a global offering at this stage. So we have a presence everywhere. That requires a huge team. There are maybe 10 plus members supporting it around the clock.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The cost is quite high. They need to work on making it a bit more affordable. We buy the equipment as a one-time purchase and then also purchase five years of support. It's a CapEx model.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are service providers. We are offering something called a virtual private cloud. Our offering mainly the virtual private cloud. It is a cloud offering by DXC.

    The product is basically a multi-tenant cloud. The cloud is hosted on our premises. We have data centers across the globe. Around 24 data centers in different regions. It's a global offering. We automated it and we have it set up for provisioning or portal enabled. It is not as good as Amazon or AWS, however, it is still a lot of cloud.

    You can request a portal, however, then you cannot scale to that scale that Amazon currently is. That said, there are some customization possibilities. It is slightly cheaper than the hyperscaler cloud and that is why most customers prefer it. They find it really useful and cheaper than a public cloud offering, and it still has the same performance level.

    I would recommend the product. I don't see any reason why you would have to look for a different vendor. The one thing that they can improve is the cost. That's pretty high. That is the only concern. Otherwise, they are very, very good in all other areas. Their hardware, software, their support, etc., are all good.

    I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We've been very happy with the product overall.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    Rajesh Kumar Ramachandran - PeerSpot reviewer
    Team Lead ESS - Sr. Customer Support Engineer, Linux / Storage at OHI TELECOMMUNICATION CO LLC
    Real User
    Top 10
    Reliable hardware with good storage and very scalable
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution is very easy to configure."
    • "The back-up side of the solution could be improved, as could the archive. We still have to rely on third-party backup programs and other archiving solutions. If it was offered by NetApp itself, it would be much better."

    What is our primary use case?

    Our client's primary use case is for the storage aspect of the solution, mainly for the block size.

    What is most valuable?

    The reliability of the storage is the solution's most valuable aspect.

    The hardware of the solution is very reliable and there are hardly any issues at all. There rarely are failures, especially when you compare it to other vendors, which have a higher failure rate.

    For example, HPE tends to be more prone to disc failures. In the case of ONTAP, this is extremely rare.

    The OS is very user-friendly. Due to the fact that the architecture of the system is the same, once we learn ONTAP, we don't have to worry about drastic changes. Other vendors tend to change their products, and then we have to re-learn everything again, including the complete UI and configuration. With NetApp ONTAP, once you learn it, only a little bit of updating is required.

    The solution is very easy to configure.

    What needs improvement?

    The solution is more for mid-range companies. 

    The integration could be improved. There used to be an integration product called Snapper Tech, however, it's not available anymore. The vendor-partner relationships need to be improved across the board.

    The back-up side of the solution could be improved, as could the archive. We still have to rely on third-party backup programs and other archiving solutions. If it was offered by NetApp itself, it would be much better.

    The solution seems to be changing and moving towards the cloud and it will require many changes in order to be able to adapt to this shift.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been dealing with the solution for almost ten years at this point. It's been a long while.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution is easily scalable. It can, due to the features itself and the Cluster ONTAP features it supports. There are additions that need to be purchased so that the customer can scale, however. Other than that, yes, you can scale it well.

    The solution best suits medium and enterprise customers. The price is small compared to other companies. 

    How are customer service and technical support?

    So far, we've been very satisfied with technical support. They are quite knowledgeable and responsive.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is not complex at all. In fact, if you compare any other storage, ONTAP is easier to install, implement, and manage than other options. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We deploy it for our customers.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    In order to scale, you do need to purchase add-ons.

    What other advice do I have?

    I'm on the partner side, and therefore not an end-user.

    I would recommend the solution. Its cluster and storage are quite good.

    Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. We enjoy working with it.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
    PeerSpot user
    Principal Systems Engineer - Datacenter Services at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Has high availability and enables us to centralize mission-critical applications on the MetroClusters
    Pros and Cons
    • "The product allowsfor the centralization of large environments."
    • "Technical support is good but they can take some time on critical problems."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use pretty much every part of the product in our company. The core of our company is in the United States and Germany and we are using MetroClusters usually for that kind of workload.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The product helped improve the way our organization functions because we are able to centralize mission-critical applications on the MetroClusters. Previously they were spread out in our environment and now it is easier to use and administer them.

    What is most valuable?

    The high availability is one of the most valuable features. But it is also nice that it is easy to do snapshots and to recover things using SnapVault. Those are great features.

    What needs improvement?

    I think everything can be improved, really. The IT world is evolving all the time, so there's always a new challenge and always a new thing to improve. It is harder to say what that could be. In a perfect world, there should exist some kind of guide as to what kind of workloads you would be able to mix within the same cluster or aggregate. That would be something really good and useful for us because we have centralized everything in just one MetroCluster. Now we are not sure if that architecture is actually giving us a few headaches or if it is something different. We have more than 15 petabytes of space use and we have a really low percentage of failures. In the boxes that are not really I/O (Input / Output) intensive, they are working very well.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The standard allowance for HA (High Availability) is really good. We do not have many usage problems with that. For the MetroClusters, we have had some problems with latency related to some calls on the backend. But besides that, it usually is a very stable environment in the MetroClusters.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is good. We started with a two-node MetroCluster, then a four-node MetroCluster and then an eight-node MetroCluster. The eight-node MetroCluster is giving us a lot of headaches. The four-node MetroCluster — if it's correctly sized and configured — it is really good.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Usually, technical support is really good. Most of the time they have a really good response. I really like the Zoom sessions because we can solve everything right away. That has been a great improvement from their support services.

    We do feel that they have been supportive with the bigger issue that we had. In this case, we understand that a lot of people are involved. The thing is that I think there are some technical challenges for support and other cases being driven by the engineering level. So I know it is a difficult case and eventually, they will resolve it.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We never needed to invest in a new solution because we were always using NetApp. We were using Windows Servers before for NAS (Network-attached Storage) environments.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was very simple. It is just making the purchase and getting up and running with a technician. We already have WFA (Workflow Automation) workflows for that and to deploy our standards, so it is quite easy. In just two or three days it was done.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We have to run proper procedures for discovery, so we invited every vendor in the market and then we continued working with them until we narrowed down the solution to only NetApp. The reason we ended up choosing NetApp is that it has great features other products don't have all of together. Features like Snapshot. 

    The support is really good also. Usually, the releases of firmware are not that good because we usually get a lot of bugs that we need to address. We like the hybrid models and the all-flash modes. We have all kinds of sizes and flavors, but those are the ones that really work. We haven't implemented anything for block-level yet, but maybe in the future, that may be on our roadmap.

    What other advice do I have?

    The solution's Snapshot copies and VIN clones work very well and they are easy to use for recovery. We have a huge environment. We are running around 15 petabytes of data, so doing backups and restores is a daily job and these features have done marvelously for our environment. It speeds things up and it is really easy for us to manage, especially in that size environment.

    Snapshot copies and VIN clones also affected our application development speed and made it way easier. We are not using containers so that has sped things up a lot. We love that feature, really.

    Consistency of storage management affected our storage operations by helping to reduce our organization's data footprint. All the space savings — on-prem, of course, because we do not use the cloud — is honestly really good. Overall, we experienced around 30% savings.

    Apparently we have a lot of latency but it is not related to the protocol. It is something within the operating system of data on top. It is still a question we have open with support and we have no answer so we do not know what the problem is yet.

    On a scale of one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as an eight. The eight is only because of the problems that we already had. We would expect that a MetroCluster would be able to provide huge performance and we had so far three outages during this year. That is quite a lot really. Overall I think it is still a really good environment and using NetApp has been a really good solution for us. But outages hurt our experience overall. It would be a ten for us if we had 100% uptime.

    The advice I would give to people considering this solution is to be very careful about the kind of workloads they are running. Keep a really close eye on things. It is best to use all the features of NetApp rather than just buying isolated boxes.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Storage Manager at mEKOROT
    Real User
    Stable, easy to deploy and just works
    Pros and Cons
    • "The product is stable, easy to deploy and it just works."
    • "We had a few small issues with setup, but once everything was done it just worked."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use this solution for Hyper-V, VMware, SQL, Enterprise Vault, and Commvault.

    How has it helped my organization?

    This product has improved the way our organization functions because everything is working so well and we don't have any disasters. Everything is perfect. Our SLA (Service Level Agreement) is in RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective). Everything just perfect. 

    What needs improvement?

    What I would like to see in the next release is the ability to combine all the clusters. Make it so that they will work not just pairs. If I have a four-node cluster, I want it to work for four and not just four pairs of clusters. This is what I am expecting as an enhancement.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    My impression of the stability of the solution is very high. We don't have any problems.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I think the scalability of this solution is excellent.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The technical support is amazing. Amazing-plus. Technical support always answers. Whenever I need them, they are there. I don't have to wait or waste my time to get the answer by email. I just call them and they answer, and they immediately try to help us. So, if there is a 1 to 10, the technical support is an 11.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We switched to this solution because we always believed that NetApp is the best company for storage solutions. I don't think they have a real competitor because they have the perfect solution that is what the end-user really needs. Everything from the software to the hardware is very good. Other competitors have similar solutions, but not the same solution or quality. They have the hardware, they have the technology, they have a protocol, but not all the protocols. NetApp actually thinks about what the user really needs to dive in deep. They know why, how to make the customer satisfied.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was straightforward. The technical guys came and deployed all of our operating systems. It was easy and maybe sometimes, not always, there was some small issue but in the end, everything is working very well.

    What about the implementation team?

    We did not use outside help. We did the deployment ourselves.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The cost of licensing for our company is really not that much. We are a big company but we only use Fibre Channel SAN (Storage Area Network) storage. We don't use the others. So actually we did not need to use all of the licenses. So, the cost is really average for us.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Other competitor solutions that we were thinking about was mostly Nimble Storage. But it is not like NetApp.

    What other advice do I have?

    We use the InLine Encryption solution for SnapMirror, SnapManager, SnapCenter, SnapMirror data protections, SnapVault, and that's all.

    The Snapshot copies and Bin Clones solutions affected our application development speed because we run all this at the nights so we actually don't have any effects on performance. Even if we do it in the middle of the day, the users don't feel any latency. So everything is going well.

    This solution has helped to reduce our organization's data footprint and reduced our organization's cloud costs by up to 100 K.

    On a scale of one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as a ten. There is no competitor like NetApp. You cannot compete with them because we have what we need and what we want and we are so satisfied that we are sure NetApp is the best solution for us.

    The advice I would give to someone considering this solution is first to ask him what exactly the solution is that they are searching for. If I can see that they are using or considering a different solution that they think is like my solution, I prefer to invite them to come to our company and see how NetApp works. I would show them how the solution works and how it runs without any problems. If they want they can get full protection — the full self-confidence we call it. It is confidence that you are actually choosing the right tool and not just the vendor. They need to know the product is actually working. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user