Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Reviews

We use Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform's 5500 series.

Hitachi's support helps us to quickly and effectively resolve any issues we may have.

Hitachi's roadmap is good. They maintain consistent performance levels with each new version and a robust platform. While we don't anticipate significant innovations in storage, the current storage capabilities are commendable.

I am satisfied with the decision to purchase Hitachi products because they provide a storage solution with good performance and quality, which is exactly what we need.

The solution's performance, specifically IOPS, is good. Since we have a complex business, knowing that the system's performance is reliable provides us with peace of mind.

The flexible media option, which helps consolidate multiple use cases within the same platform, is very important because it provides a significant performance boost. 

Storage is the most valuable feature.

The embedded management for installation feature has neither simplified nor complicated the management process, therefore, there is room for improvement.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for over 15 years.

The customer service is good.

Positive

The price is good enough considering the performance, and we are satisfied.

I would rate the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform an eight out of ten.

We have independent consultants who conduct market research for us. On the other hand, when we pay for upgrades or renewals, we typically engage two different vendors in the solution: IBM and another vendor.

Our solution provider is Hitachi itself. They own the technology and provide us with assessments. They are a good partner to work with.

I am likely to recommend Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform to others.

The Hitachi VSP has significantly improved data storage scalability by addressing various issues. Through their research and development efforts, they've incorporated customer feedback regarding deployment speed and performance requirements.

The tool's impact on data retrieval times is primarily seen in performance and reliability. It has proven to be more reliable. Speed in restoration varies depending on the nature of the backup or image being restored.

Its most valuable feature is the centralized consolidation portal. In terms of performance and agility, the Hitachi VSP stands out against competitors primarily due to its reliability and storage performance capabilities.

The solution is priced higher than its competitors. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

I rate the product's stability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the tool's scalability at around seven point five on a scale of one to ten. While the storage solution is proprietary, it may not provide the same integration as some cloud-based solutions.

The initial setup of the Hitachi VSP was relatively straightforward for us. Hitachi deployed an engineer who handled the configuration and initial setup process. Subsequently, they provided training and guidance on managing and monitoring the system and providing storage for various needs, such as integrating with other cloud platforms like AWS.

The deployment duration can vary depending on the size and complexity of the setup. In our case, as it was for a tier-two data center, the deployment process took approximately two months. This included around one month for preparation and approval processes, followed by another month for delivery and configuration of the storage components.

I would rate the solution's pricing at around eight or nine on a scale of one to ten. While the solution may be priced higher than some competitors, we prioritize the quality and durability of the storage.

Enterprise customers mostly use the tool. I would recommend Hitachi VSP to others. It excels in terms of quality and performance and adheres to industry standards. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

I use the solution in my company as it is a good storage product.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform's GUI or interface for storage and management is a little bit difficult compared to Primera and HPE storage products.

I want to see deduplication features in the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform since it is a good storage system. The GUI interface for storage management is a bit difficult.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform since 2015.

I think all storage tools have facilities in them to be able to scale up and down. Scalability-wise, I have no complaints with the solution.

I don't think the product features are available for our company to contact the tool's support team. There was an incident in 2016 and 2017 when both of its controllers failed. It was very strange for me to have a storage in which both the controllers failed. We had to send it across to Japan for investigation, but I haven't received any reply from them yet.

The product's installation phase was not difficult because the vendor or its partner was involved in its setup process.

I have seen some savings in my company from the use of the product, especially since the market is becoming too competitive nowadays. The companies selling storage which are better than mechanical drives.

I find Hitachi to be cheaper by five to ten percent when compared to Dell and HP's costs, but the features in Dell are better than Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. We have only eight terabytes of storage available on Dell, but we can manage to create partitions of about thirty terabytes, meaning it allows for a lot of compression.

From the data management point of view and for deduplication purposes, Dell storage is the best option. It gives me around a one-is-to-sixteen ratio of compression, while Primera only offers a one-is-to-three ratio. There is no deduplication in Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform because it is an old storage.

The product's performance is good.

The product is reliable.

I rate the solution a seven to eight out of ten.

The product can be made into a multi-controller system instead of just being a tool that offers a two-controller system to users since it is one of the areas where the product lacks. From a controller perspective, the tool should offer scalability. The tool should also offer better manageability options, considering that users have multiple storages in their environment and need to control them with the help of a single pane of glass. The solution does provide users with the option to opt for a single console from where everything can be managed, but it is not available for free. The manageability area can be improved if a single console is made available to users for free.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for around ten years. My company has a partnership with Hitachi Vantara.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The controllers in the product do not provide options for scalability. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) E Series is useful for medium to large-sized enterprises.

The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

I rate the initial setup phase a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult process, and ten means it is an easy process. The product's installation phase is easy.

There are boxes available under the product, and they get implemented depending on the different kinds of workloads in my company, because of which, the tool may get used in clouds, VDIs, and GPU servers for high-performance computing.

The solution can be deployed in two to three hours.

Considering the solution's price, it is very competitive compared to the other competitors in the market. I rate the product price a nine out of ten. My company purchases the licenses for the solution in a bundle, owing to which our company gets a very competitive price compared to the pricing models offered by its competitors.

The product has improved our company's data storage scalability aspect, considering that my organization uses Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) E Series. My company uses Hitachi VSP E990 All-Flash NVMe Storage Platform and Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform E1090 for production storage purposes. My company relies on All-NVMe Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. In our organization, we never faced a performance issue with the product.

The product has improved our company's data retrieval time tremendously since we don't see any performance issues with the tool in our company. My company has not seen any issues with the tool's data retrieval time or response time.

The most valuable feature of the product for our company's data management needs stems from the fact that the tool provides multiple functionalities, like Hitachi HDD drivers. The tool offers in-built encryption, ensuring that data security is available in the solution. My company also gets a good number of compression and data efficiency ratios. My company gets to see a 1:2.5 compression ratio, allowing us to save a lot of space. From a capacity perspective, I see that the product consumption in our company is very high due to multiple workloads running on the boxes from Hitachi. The product offers more capacity than a single box. I have around three petabytes of storage, which is a huge storage capacity.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform reliability and uptime support our company's machine-critical applications since the tool offers 100 percent uptime and has never gone down in our company in the last three years.

In terms of performance and ability, the product can stand up against its competitors since the solution offers two controller systems to users. The tool also offers a good performance in comparison to the other products in the market. My company has workloads of variable block sizes. A lot of storage platforms fail when there are variable block sizes, but there is a sustenance level that Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform offers in such scenarios. Instead of considering the differences in block sizes, the product tries to offer a consistent and good performance to users.

The product's integration capabilities with the tools in our company's existing infrastructure are possible. It is very easy to use the integration features of the product. My company tested the product's integration functionalities, and we found that it worked fine in our infrastructure. I think that the product's integration capabilities are convenient and easy to use.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it, considering that its price-to-performance ratio is very good. The product also offers a good efficiency ratio. The tool's performance is much better in comparison with the other storage platforms in the market.

I rate the product a nine out of ten.

It's for our internal network SAN for about 100 virtual machines. It's about the IOPS. We were looking for a model that would have enough IOPS for these types of virtual machines. IOPS and latency are very important for us because we are running an application, on these virtual machines, that deals with building and milliseconds are very important.

Hitachi's adaptive data reduction technology has helped reduce our storage footprint. This was one of the reasons we bought the solution. It saves us about 80 percent versus another vendor's solution.

One of the features, for us, that is important is the monitoring platform integrated into the solution. It has all the elements that we need to see, at all times, to be sure the platform is working right.

There is room for improvement in terms of the IP solution.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform E990 for three years.

In three years, we have only had four big issues.

Hitachi's effective capacity guarantee has been valuable for us. They provide us a certain capacity with a limit. When we reach this limit, we buy the next step. That means we always have enough capacity.

We use the solution for a specific department with about 200 people in it.

We haven't had to scale it because we bought the biggest option for this solution. We don't plan to increase our usage.

We have had too many issues.

Neutral

We had a Hitachi solution as well, before this one. When doing our assessment of the solution, we had a dedicated Hitachi partner who helped us to check into the IOPS and latency.

I was part of the project from the initial internal requirements. The initial deployment was somewhat complex when it came to the installation because of the network connectivity. It was more difficult, in this specific case, than with other platforms.

We used the embedded management for the installation. It made the latter part of the deployment easy, but the first part was very complicated for us.

The deployment was done directly with Hitachi.

We have seen ROI.

The main difference between Hitachi and other vendors is the cost. At the time that we bought the solution, it was the best option but the price, compared to other vendors, is a little high.

Once the platform is up and running, it's very fast. But for integration, it's not the best option.

Our primary use case is a hybrid private cloud that includes generic server virtualization based on VMware ESXi. The second use case is workstation virtualization — virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The third is database systems with IBM Power and IBM IX logical partitions.

Data optimization, compression, and deduplication are the most important features for us.

I would like to see Hitachi improve their management software. It's been three years since they introduced Ops Center, their management product, and it still hasn't reached at least 50 percent of the capability we require. We are using legacy software because the product Hitachi offers does not stack up in functionality.

Hitachi should increase the number of possible functions Ops Center can perform. For example, it is impossible to manage any kind of storage replication using this product. All competing solutions provide that, but you need to install a separate solution to manage replication in Hitachi arrays. It was not the case with legacy software, but the current solution doesn't have that.

We've been using Hitachi VSP for about four years.

Hitachi VSP is stable in most cases, but we've had a few hiccups with the storage firmware. 

Hitachi VSP scales pretty well, but it generally depends on storage costs. The high-end arrays have huge scalability limits. Generally, we are limited mainly by the array controllers' performance, not the array's capacity limits. 

Our environment is massive. We have approximately 15,000 users for virtual desktop solutions, about 16,000 email users, and approximately 6,000 to 7,000 servers running on VMware platforms. We also have a few hundred logical partitions on IBM Power servers.

We regularly contact Hitachi technical support. The idea of a storage array is that it's broken up into many small pieces of storage. Each piece may fail, and they do from time to time. Therefore, we typically have to open five or six cases every month for mundane tasks like replacing failed disk drives. That's typical for any customer using storage on a large scale.

Those are minor cases, but storage controller failures are more serious, and we see three or four every year. We also have two or three performance-related cases each year. 

We're a relatively large customer, so we do not perform installation ourselves. Service partners typically perform it. We have three people managing the storage, three working with the storage area network, and five handling the backups.

All the software licenses are bundled with the storage hardware. I'm not the purchasing guy, so I do not negotiate prices. When the company makes a purchasing decision, I only provide the technical requirements. The price is a question for the purchasing department.

I rate Hitachi VSP seven out of 10. Generally, I wouldn't recommend Hitachi VSP to a customer without a background in storage systems. Solid technical expertise is needed to use these storage solutions on a medium or a large scale.

I use Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for different applications in my company to ensure their good performance. I also use the tool for replication.

I cannot give my opinion or suggestions on what needs improvement in the product since I need to better understand it.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform needs to improve its scalability options where there are a few shortcomings.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for a year. I use the solution's latest version.

The product offers high stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I think that since Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform has been a long-standing solution in the market compared to all the other solutions I have seen over the years. I don't know about the scalability part of the tool, but I know that I am into the product. In some situations, my company may need to go to the next high-end model of the solution, meaning that we may not always be able to continue with the existing models of the solution in our company, and there may arise a need to go to different kinds of models or other models in the market.

I am just an engineer in my company, but I don't use the solution much since I am mostly involved with it as an administrator.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I worked on different solutions but not with the customers I deal with currently. I have worked with different companies, older versions, and models of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and other storage tools. Everything depends upon the customers' needs.

The product's initial setup phase is not very difficult since it doesn't take much time to do. In my company, we work with an IT technician and Hitachi's field engineer during the deployment phase of the product, but I don't know how the setup is done.

The solution is deployed on the cloud. It currently works on an integrated setup or is better described as a hybrid integrated setup. The tool is integrated with multiple cloud technologies, but I am not sure how it was done or works.

The solution can be deployed in a few days or around a week.

I have seen a higher return on investment from the use of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform in my company. I can see the profits made by my company, but I don't know how much it is exactly, so I feel that the product's use definitely fetches returns.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is a very expensive product. The cost of the product depends upon the company's customers' requirements, so if they require higher redundancy, then the product will become more cost-effective for them.

I use Hitachi Command Suite for provisioning. In general, I use products from Hitachi to deal with the different kinds of approaches with my company's customers, which usually includes giving better solutions to customers.

For a single solution, two people or three people, we can maintain it, but it depends. One person cannot look into the maintenance part of the tool for an entire day. The product's maintenance phase depends upon how big the infrastructure is and how many services from the solution are required by a user.

It is an okay solution that is not bad.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

We're only using the F Series in our lab for hosting lab infrastructure for all our colleagues. We needed fast storage.

The solution hasn't really improved our organization as it's only for lab infrastructure. It's not business-critical.

However, it has helped reduce our storage footprint. Previously, we had four storage systems and now we have only one F Series for the whole lab infrastructure.

The deduplication is useful for us because we don't have that much money for our lab infrastructure. Deduplication means we have more storage available. And the IOPS are really fast.

One problem is that there are too many management tools for the F Series and for all the other Hitachi storage systems. There are four or five such solutions. Maybe these could be combined in the future.

I've been using the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series for half a year.

There are about 400 users who access our labs across the whole company.

We haven't had to use their support yet.

We have used NetApp, HyperFlex, and vSAN—a lot of solutions. We switched because our main infrastructure is Hitachi and we wanted to keep it all with one vendor.

The deployment of the solution was straightforward. We used the embedded management for the installation and it simplified things. Using it is like a reset and it was really straightforward.

We haven't had to scale it yet and we don't have plans to increase our usage of it at the moment.

Overall, we are very satisfied with Hitachi's product. Managing it is very easy and the F Series is very stable. In general, the stability of Hitachi products is really good.