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SolidFire pros and cons

Vendor: NetApp
4.1 out of 5
1,488 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

SolidFire is highly scalable, accommodating expansion needs seamlessly.
Performance management is enhanced by full API functionality and consistent performance levels.
It is straightforward to scale up SolidFire according to business needs.
SolidFire is ideal for mid-sized businesses due to its compactness and speed.
Provisioning processes are efficient, reducing latency and optimizing data transfer, beneficial for quick data mining results.

CONS

SolidFire could improve its compatibility with other products.
SolidFire's technical support needs to be improved.
SolidFire should consider reducing the starting point from four nodes to two nodes to lower the cost.
SolidFire users may face some security issues at times that need improvement.
SolidFire's scalability concerns when compared to PowerMax or NetApp AFF series devices due to lack of shelf connectivity.
 

SolidFire Pros review quotes

Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 3, 2020
SolidFire provides seamless performance across your storage system when you need to scale up. Other storage systems do not do that.
it_user750636 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
We can add a node, we add compute, we add storage, and we've had really good luck with that.
Arnaud Salmon - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 16, 2020
I would say in terms of architecture and in terms of functionality, the product is quite good.
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it_user465198 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
We can just buy them, scale them as we need on demand, and we don't have to spend so many front end cycles on designing the architecture.
reviewer1560501 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 9, 2021
It's got full API functionality and the performance is pretty steady.
it_user750804 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
SolidFire is one of the products that does have great APIs right out-of-the-box. It works great. The tools and the other stuff seem to work a little better right out-of-the-box than the ONTAP stuff does, C-Mode.
it_user750603 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
The simplicity of it.
it_user750786 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
Greater IOPS, speed, it's all-flash. So seeing that everything is going to all-flash, all SSDs, SolidFire fits right in there with the emerging trend in IT.
reviewer2123541 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 9, 2023
It is very easy to scale up SolidFire.
it_user750735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
Templates are already predefined for it. If you're coding it up, it will take two days. You can pick up a template right there from the API, and it just works for you. Implementation done in 10 minutes.
 

SolidFire Cons review quotes

Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 3, 2020
SolidFire should start from two nodes instead of the four nodes. That's the only thing. In a lot of solutions, we have to use four nodes, that's the better thing. But as a starting point, two is better. That's why their starting point is expensive.
it_user750636 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
We had some false positives, power supplies failing, and that's really been about it. We had a couple of glitches during some upgrade processes but nothing that was really concerning to us.
Arnaud Salmon - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 16, 2020
You don't have business continuity with SolidFire. I think it could be a nice feature to have in the future.
Learn what your peers think about SolidFire. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
817,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user465198 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
When you set up the nodes, we have to serial into each one of these nodes to configure the IP ranges. It's still very easy, but it's time consuming.
reviewer1560501 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 9, 2021
The upgrade process could be better.
it_user750804 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
They could do a file-based NAS: SolidFire NAS-based. It's probably not its niche, but that is our direction, not to use block, and it's block. Solid state block is what it is.
it_user750603 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
We are looking for, potentially, on the Active IQ reporting side, to do reporting based on the datastore. Right now, I can report on the whole SolidFire, or I can report on just a certain datastore or a volume. I'd like to take all of my VDI infrastructure, which as an example would be multiple datastores.
it_user750786 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
We have a large fiber channel infrastructure, and that's one area that we haven't seen implemented in SolidFire, its more iSCSI.
reviewer2123541 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 9, 2023
SolidFire could improve in terms of hardware robustness.
it_user750735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2017
So feature-wise, I would say more reporting tools that could be merged into it.