It is performing well. It is the data center of devices, e.g., when we are using the call locations in San Francisco and Sacramento.
Network Engineer at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is more stable than other solutions. We do not touch it.
Pros and Cons
- "Technical support has been good when we have contacted them in the past. They have been helpful."
- "Once it is in place, we do not touch it, so it is more stable than other solutions."
- "We would like more security features."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
If we go to different vendors, this solution looks good. Though, it is mainly manufactured to a particular size.
As per the implements, we need to bring more devices for this type of situation. It will be helpful for us to get more infrastructure export, etc.
What is most valuable?
- Its existing space
- Its design
What needs improvement?
We would like more security features.
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
September 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Once it is in place, we do not touch it, so it is more stable than other solutions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good.
Once our current issue is fixed, it will be good. Then, we will not have any issues on it.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been good when we have contacted them in the past. They have been helpful. However, we have the technical experts, so we do not use their services often.
How was the initial setup?
We used it for the remote setup, not the physical setup.
We upgrade it normally during downtime.
What about the implementation team?
We do it ourselves when it is straightforward. When it is a complex installation, we bring their technical person onboard.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable.
We are good and comfortable with CDW.
What other advice do I have?
It is a good solution compared to other products.
Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: It depends on the device - How much it carries, what the security is, etc.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
![PeerSpot user](https://www.peerspot.com/assets/media/images/anonymous_avatar_x50-87dfede4.png)
Enterprise systems engineer
Provides fast and reliable storage.
What is most valuable?
We currently have FlexPods and we are going to buy SolidFire to upgrade the FlexPods that we have. Peer organizations have recently purchased SolidFire and have seen a tremendous increase in their performance, not only just with speed, but with reliability. We don't have a choice, because it's that good.
How has it helped my organization?
It is always better to have faster, more reliable storage than unreliable and slow storage. Requirements are not getting smaller. We're not seeing a diminishing need for, or a plateauing of requirements.
The organization is growing. The storage requirements are growing. The move to big data that we're seeing is requiring faster storage and faster throughput. The common business applications we use this solution for are the Exchange Server, Outlook, and VMs.
What needs improvement?
I'm happy with the solution as it is.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've only been here for a year, and we've had it the entire year I've been here. In the last year, there's been no downtime due to the equipment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not seen anything that would indicate that it's not stable. It hasn't gone down on us, so that's a good thing. There has been no downtime that was the fault of the equipment.
How is customer service and technical support?
In terms of technical support, we pay them and they do what we pay them to do. Sometimes we pay them, and they don't have to do anything.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup.
What other advice do I have?
Don't buy magnetic media, but rather buy all-flash storage, solid state drives, or other types of flash media. I can't imagine that magnetic media is going to be around for much longer. Eventually, the old stuff is going to go away. Spinning platters are going to go away. I suggest investing in all-flash. Don't buy magnetic media, but rather put them in your garage.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
September 2024
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Learn what your peers think about FlexPod XCS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Systems Administrator, I at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I can migrate my profiles if I have a problem with one. I have firmware upgrade issues.
What is most valuable?
I love the ability to migrate my profiles if I have a problem with one. It's worked out great for us: system dies, have it back up on 20 minutes, no problem. Unfortunately, that has happened once.
How has it helped my organization?
It just gave us everything in one box. There isn’t any, run over here and configure this, run over here and configure this; it's all in one, nice, neat little rack. It's just one interface, which is always nice.
What needs improvement?
I would love to see the single interface for managing everything end to end. That would be ideal.
Also, simply the interface a little bit. There are a lot of places to go to get things configured and it's easy to get lost: Did I remember to do this piece over here before I did this piece? Then there's this piece on the other side. There are just a lot of moving parts that I think could be simplified, or wizard-driven; to say, you have all of these together.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability and scalability are fantastic. I’ve never had any issues with stability or scalability.
I've had lots of issues with firmware upgrades. I'm locked on an unsupported firmware because I have three production servers that, if I upgrade the firmware on them, I lose those servers. The solution from Microsoft, NetApp, and Cisco is to rebuild those servers on updated firmware. That's not an option.
I’m locked where I’m at. I can't go to 2016. I just barely squeaked into 2012 R2, I'm locked where I'm at now until we refresh our SQL environment. Then, it's however fast I can get my dev team to get off that old SQL environment. The last SQL refresh took me 10 years. We had the new environment in there but they say something like, "Well, we’ve got this legacy app, we can't move it just yet."
To get a perfect rating, they would need to fix these issues, without rebuilding my environment.
How are customer service and technical support?
Generally, technical support is good. When you call in, as long as you give them a clear issue, you're going to get a good answer. Don't call in and just say it's broken.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We needed faster networking. We use it primarily for our virtual servers, for migrations. To get 10 Gig into our data center, we had to run cables all the way across the building to our networking area. The more cables you're running, that pipe's only so big. We ran a couple of cables to the FlexPod, plugged it in, and all of a sudden, I've got 40 Gig to move data back and forth in the rack. I don't ever have to leave it, so that was our primary reason for bringing it in.
What was our ROI?
It’s pricey, but provides a high return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It was a little spendy, but you get what you pay for, though. It's rock solid, other than my firmware issue. Other than that, I plugged it in, and other than checking on it once a month to make sure that there are no alerts, I leave it alone. That's fantastic.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not look at any other vendors; we are a Cisco/NetApp/Microsoft shop. It was clear-cut for us.
In general, when we do look for a vendor, the important criteria are reputation, stability and price, obviously. Also, how easily can I talk to them? We've had vendors come in and they've completely bombed on their initial interviews. It's like, "Sorry, guys. You had that one shot to make that first impression and you did it poorly."
What other advice do I have?
Check the interop matrix and check it carefully. Make sure that everything's going to work across the line.
Another thing: Once I've got my FlexPod in place and NetApp knows I've got a NetApp 8040 – they know I have these models – have it pull the interop matrix for me. You know all my parts. Why do I have to hunt it down?
For other customers: Just make sure you do your homework on it. Make sure it's actually going to give you what you need and have fun with it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CIP System Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's a flexible, stable solution that allows us to use the various component together with few outages.
Valuable Features
The most valuable feature is the flexibility and the ability to use the various components nicely together.
Stability Issues
It's very good as we've had very few outages.
Scalability Issues
I think its pretty good. We have been able to grow our environment without any major reconfigurations.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service:
NetApp support is great.
We had an issue with one of our UCS plates and we thought it was an issue with NetApp, but then ultimately it was an issue with Cisco and we would have had to open multiple tickets.
However, with FlexPod being a joint solution of NetApp and Cisco, having to get support only through NetApp solved our issue quicker.
Technical Support:I personally only worked with NetApp support, which has been very good.
Initial Setup
Initial setup was straightforward.
Other Advice
It's well worth looking into.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Technology Architect and Business Consultant
Provides us with flexibility, everything is fully configurable
Pros and Cons
- "Software flexibility. Everything is fully configurable. The reliability results from the design. Elements are well projected (disks, blade, network, etc.). No single point of failure is identifiable."
- "FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design."
What is our primary use case?
My use case was a small FlexPod architecture (seven Cisco B-Series Blades, a FAS8200 in CDOT, two Cisco Nexus switches). One rack. We used Cisco 3xxx switches. Six profiles were defined so six blades were running and one was a spare.
On top of the infrastructure we used Oracle Hypervisor (OVM); the VMs were based on Oracle Linux. On top the virtual machines we hosted Oracle Database (pinned, to reduce license costs) or applications.
So two levels of flexibility per DR were activated: one based on profiles and one based on the hypervisor.
How has it helped my organization?
The customer added the FlexPod-based solution to a real-time system to improve their overall system with a new analytics environment.
What is most valuable?
- Software flexibility. Everything is fully configurable.
- The reliability results from the design. Elements are well projected (disks, blade, network, etc.).
- No single point of failure is identifiable.
What needs improvement?
FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant
The main benefits are scalability, modularity, and fast data transfer.
What is most valuable?
The valuable features are scalability and all-flash. We are using it with Cisco UCS Blade Servers, so the Cisco switches work very well as a unit. It provides us with the performance we need for our customers to get data on time. Our top customers are very happy with this solution.
How has it helped my organization?
The main benefits are scalability, modularity, and fast data transfer. I think the business benefit is a faster response time.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the data fabric of the entire system because. The government is looking to deploy a government cloud solution. We want a data fabric which needs to be managed, for the entire cloud environment.
In this regard, if we use storage on our premises for our cloud infrastructure, along with some other vendor like Azure or AWS. We are wondering how all this data will be synchronized and if we can get a common solution and common input. That is the next challenge, not only for me, but for all of the members of the team.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have been very happy with the scalability.
How is customer service and technical support?
In terms of technical support team, the support is being provided by a partner of NetApp. However, NetApp people from India do visit us and they ask us if we are facing any problems. We hope to receive very good service from NetApp in the coming days.
How was the initial setup?
I was as consultant for the initial implementation. The team was happy with the implementation.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at other solutions like EMC, but NetApp was the most cost-effective solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would highly recommend NetApp as a storage solution. I am impressed with all types of storage. In terms of choosing NetApp, FlexPod has a very good hyper-converged infrastructure and flash storage. It is a very good way of being cost effective. There are a lot of vendors, but not that many of them are as cost effective as NetApp.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
IT Systems Administrator at City of Avondale
We're able to call a vendor and they can use back channels and reach out to the other two vendors to get us a solution, but the price could be improved.
Valuable Features
The fact that it’s a validated design, so you are not running into any gotchas.
Improvements to My Organization
By having a FlexPod we're able to call a vendor and they can use back channels and reach out to other two vendors to get us a solution, instead of each vendor passing the blame from one to another. It's one stop shopping.
Room for Improvement
The price.
Stability Issues
It's very stable, and just runs and runs and runs until you upgrade something.
Scalability Issues
It's very easy to grow and very simple. There's nothing major to add more chassis and blades, or storage if you need to.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Their support is dynamite, and it's a lot easier to escalate with NetApp than with VMware. VMware has taken us a lot longer than with NetApp.
Initial Setup
It’s very complex if you’re new to it, but once you’ve done it its pretty easy.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
I would like it to be cheaper but other than that nothing to add. As much as I can try to get the price lower, why should I have to negotiate in the first place?
Other Advice
I would say do it, do it now. Spend the money and buy it, it makes it easy.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Exchange Administrator at a individual & family service with 1,001-5,000 employees
It allows compatibility to the SnapDrive manager, and while we haven't had stability issues yet, we're still early in its usage.
Valuable Features
I would say that it gives us more flexibility than an entire VM or bare metal solution. Its sole purpose where it mixes everything together allows compatibility to the SnapDrive manager.
Room for Improvement
Nothing I have seen can be improved, but I think we're still early in the usage.
Deployment Issues
We designed it about a year ago and have had it about six months.
Stability Issues
It seems great so far.
Scalability Issues
So far we have not had to expand it, but are expanding shortly so we will find out.
Customer Service and Technical Support
I haven’t had to use them so far, but my colleagues who have used support have been happy so far.
Initial Setup
It was straightforward.
Implementation Team
Our vendor did it for us.
Other Advice
I would say that it seems to be the way to go in our environment. We're looking into it for new aspects as well but well see.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
![PeerSpot user](https://www.peerspot.com/assets/media/images/anonymous_avatar_x50-87dfede4.png)
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Updated: September 2024
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