Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Reviews

This product was used to store all of our production block requirements. We are now migrating to an all-flash storage system.

The active-active option seemed to be working well and overall, it was a solid product.

It performed well and the software offerings were solid.

We had issues with support, rather than the product itself. It seemed like every time we turned around it was a statement of work and we'd have to pay for something that our previous vendors would not have billed us for. I don't think that they would have even raised an eyebrow. By contrast, these guys were looking for money every time we asked for any little thing. We didn't like that.

We had been working with the G series for about six years.

The stability is great. It's right up there with anything else that we had seen, so no issues. It was a solid product.

We did not try to scale because our models were bought at full capability on day one.

We had a lot of issues with support and I would rate them a five out of ten in that aspect.

We have experience and history with several Dell EMC products including the BNX line, BMX,  and PowerMax. However, we are moving away from this to the HP all-flash solution.

The only reason we changed from the Hitachi Platform G is that it was getting long in the tooth, and we wanted to get into the flash environment. 

The initial setup was straightforward and we didn't have any issues.

The costs were primarily in line with every other vendor at the time. Year six and year seven maintenance took a drastic jump, which didn't sit well with us. However, at the time, it seemed to be what most of the vendors were doing. But by the end, Hitachi had sort of balanced it out, so it wasn't a huge jump in years six and seven. It was certainly an issue for us in the beginning.

We went through an RFP-type process to select a flash vendor, and we're just in the process of implementing that storage today. It was this same sort of process six years ago when we replaced our existing Dell EMC solution with the Hitachi product. Hitachi had a better offering.

I can't say anything about the product itself that was in need of improvement. The areas where we had issues were more along the lines with support and HDS management. For anybody who is interested in this solution, I would say that from a product standpoint, it is fine. The only problem is the support. Anytime we needed support, it was delayed. I'm not sure of the reason for this, but it just seemed like it took a long time to get things resolved.

At the time we did our RFP, HDS did not have an all-flash offering. They do now, but I haven't had the opportunity to look at their all-flash products. Hopefully, it is not just all-flash thrown into a G 1500 Series because you want to build flash from the ground up.

What we found during our recent RFP was that the pricing is pretty close between all-flash and HDD, so while not everybody needs the performance, if you're getting it for the same price then why wouldn't you take advantage of it?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

In my experience, I've encountered several limitations, particularly in the operational tasks, when dealing with unified storage. I've faced significant performance issues, especially when extending block capacities. The operational challenges, such as the console getting blocked and preventing any activity, have been a recurring issue.

For instance, extending a replicated volume from one site to another involves breaking the mirror application, adding unnecessary complexities. Unlike other products, like Dell, where extending volumes is straightforward, this process on this platform requires multiple steps, including breaking and reestablishing the application, making it time-consuming and not straightforward. 

The Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform faces challenges when it comes to features like deduplication and compression. Enabling these features can lead to processor overload, resulting in performance degradation, especially under high loads.

It faces limitations, particularly during code upgrades. If the CPU utilization exceeds 65 percent, the standard procedures for firmware or code upgrades are restricted.

I have been working with the product for four years. 

I rate the product’s stability a five out of ten. 

There are no significant challenges in terms of scalability, and it can accommodate larger storage capacities compared to other storage solutions.

The support experience with Hitachi VSP is characterized by a lengthy process for issue resolution. For a simple problem, the support team typically requests logs, which take about 30 minutes to generate. Uploading the logs adds another 30 minutes, and the engineer's review of the logs requires an additional hour. Consequently, the entire process takes two hours, leaving the system in a critical state without a resolution during that time.

Negative

I rate the product’s deployment one out of ten. The deployment process lasted for three months.The initial deployment encountered numerous performance issues, leading to instability and frequent disruptions in production. The on-site engineering team was actively engaged for almost three months to address and resolve these challenges.

The integration process of Hitachi VSP into the existing IT infrastructure is not straightforward and is a bit complex.

The initial deployment was initially attempted by a third party, but they were unsuccessful in resolving the issues. Subsequently, Hitachi engineers were directly engaged and worked on-site for nearly three months, facing challenges throughout the process.

The solution is expensive. 

I rate the overall product a four out of ten. 

I use this solution in the data center of the office of Mexico's Secretary of Education. I work with different hosts. In this case, it had to be HP-UX, Linux, and Windows. I work with the entire family of Hitachi hardware, but for this case, I work with the CBS500 and CB2500 Blade. I use all kinds of software, like Command Director and Device Manager.

For the support windows to work, maybe they have to upgrade the firmware of the VSP. They changed the hardware or the disk. I don't know if it was the port blade they changed or a VM for a memory cache. Also, replacing the old target with the processor target would be fine. The old equipment is very easy to manage, and I don't have any bad commentary.

I have worked with this equipment for the last two years. When I worked before in Hitachi Data Systems, I worked for a data architect and designed complete solutions, so I have a lot of interaction with the clients.  I handle the solutions, the capacity of the disk, configuration, initial set up, definitions of the DP pools, assigning the volumes, creating the entire SAN, etc. Also, I manage the SAN switches. I worked for Pearson, Sonic, Mobiistar, Macromer, Mynorte, and Santander. Every time, I created the whole environment— all open and the mainframe in development. For example, at Ponavid, I created the whole solution, assigned the space, performed all the troubleshooting, as well as supported all the hardware and the performance.

Yes it's very scalable. For example, in the VSP, you can scale the capacity of the disk in-tray and also in the mid-range. In the VSP, the tray is a bit bigger obviously, and I think the disk is the same. And also when you escalate the new equipment, configuration is very easy as well.

When I with work with Hitachi Vantara, I oversee the troubleshooting and support. I am the engineer who provides support, and so it's easy. Once we installed using the harddrive manager, when hardware failed.  Support created a case and assigned this to me and I am the engineer. I take the case and I have to take a solution to the client.

The setup is very easy to manage and configure. The initial setup and takes one hour more or less. And when I check the old disk and processor or the memory cache, I check the blade also. Next, I changed the disk, created the configuration, and installed the old disk. This takes maybe one hour extra. Depending on the performance of the old disk and the capacity, it could take maybe three or four hours. Sometimes, it takes eight. Then I created a SAN, a port, the host groups, the DP pools, and the dynamic provisioning. And for performance troubleshooting, I take a dump. For example, I check the read-write performance of the IO as well as the performance of the port, the workflow, the workload, and the memory cache. 

It always depends on what technology you need. Because if you need a very fast flash disk, it's going to be more expensive obviously. But if you need a backup solution, it's fine, because the technology is advanced, but it fits in some cases.

I rate Hitachi 10 out of 10.

We are a solution provider and I work with a lot of different SAN products, depending on the needs of the customers. we have implemented this solution, as well as the G series, for some of our clients.

I have a project right now that involves revising and fine-tuning a storage network. This network contains two Hitatch VSP G Series units. There is not a major difference between the F Series and the G Series. Both of them are enterprise-scale and efficient for many data centers. It is used as primary storage in industries such as banking, automotive, health care, and insurance. Large companies, or companies that have an IBM mainframe.

If the solution requires a very high IO/s (Input/Output per second) with sub-millisecond response time then they should select the F Series because it has better performance.

I was attracted to this solution after finding out several of the special features that are available for storage.

• Storage Virtualization
• Global Active Device
• FMD
• Metro Clustering
• 3D Scale ( Scale-up, Scale-out, Scale-deep)

Three years later, I started to design an enterprise solution for one company, using this product has led to more stability and business owner satisfaction due to prevent unwanted downtime or service outage.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G provides the always-availablHitachi Virtual Storage Platform G provides the always-available, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO. This solution helps to provide more stability and high availability in Datacenters.e, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO. This soultion helps to provies more stability and high-avalbility in Datacenters.

Compared to others, Hitachi products are more complex and not user-friendly. The interface should be simplified and made easier to use. For instance, the EMC Unity series is easier to manage.

In the next release of this solution, it should support NVMe.

An important improvement for this solution is cloud integration (OpenStack), as well as integration with VVoL technologies, Docker, Kubernetes, and Red Hat OpenShift.

I have started working with HDS solutions for more than ten years ago. In my idea, the most perfect one is VSP G Series because you can find better integration with business requirments and better response to IT challenges.

This is one of the most stable, high-end solutions in this area. It has eight controllers and special features for connecting disks on the back end. It has a lot of front ports and all of the components are redundant. It is hard to find a problem with this product. It is designed for those who want less than one minute a year of downtime. It's a 24/7 product.

Based on customers need solutions should be designed. In my experience switching from previous brands to HDS VSP has led to reaching 40% better TCO and 99.9999 availability.

The installation of this solution is a little bit hard. In these kinds of products, the original companies are often interested in setting up the product in the customer's environment.

We are located in Iran, and there is a lot of tension and lack of communication because of our locale. There are restrictions in a lot of our data centers that preclude us from having special software from the original company, and because of that, we face a lot of problems when using these kinds of products.

The initial setup and configuration are usually done by the CE of the vendor, and after the initial configuration is complete, These products are sent to our data centers.

This solution is less expensive than the EMC VMAX series.

When you are looking for high-end solutions such as this, price is less important than stability and availability.

I have researched many products in the Enterprise area to find the best suits for my customers. These include high-end products by NetApp(FAS8060), EMC VMAX, the HPE XP P9500, and the HPE XP Series.

For instance, for one of my customers comparing the details of these products and my customer requirements has led to scoring each of the features. Ultimately, I chose the Hitachi VSP series. The second choice was the HPE XP P9500.

This type of comparison is not easy because there are a lot of companies and a lot of brands. However, I just wanted to find the best solution for my customer.

Day to day, everything changes in the field of IT. I have done a lot of research on products such as this, and I have learned that we are going to have a lot more data in 2020. This huge amount of data means that you need the right platform for processing data quickly. More than before, we need a platform that can process large amounts of data in less than ten milliseconds. One such platform is the Hitachi VSP, with both good performance and availability.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is for storage in some industries such as banking, automotive, healthcare, and insurance companies. It is for large companies or companies with a large mainframe such as an IBM mainframe. Our primary use case was for core banking.

Businesses are looking for simple storage solutions that can exceed expectations and meet the challenge of delivering continuous availability and high performance while maximizing the value of physical and virtual infrastructures. Simultaneously, enterprise and mission-critical business application environments are becoming increasingly unpredictable and organizations need the ability to deliver and orchestrate automated operations.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F provides the always-available, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO.

We have read in the latest newsletters that in 2020 there is going to be more data, more than four hundred zettabytes. It's a huge amount of data and you will need the right platform to process it. More than people, we will need a platform that can process that amount of data in less than a millisecond. So we are looking for a high-speed storage enterprise, such as VSP.

If you compare to other solutions, Hitachi is more complex, but the platform is improving and it's not as difficult as it used to be.

We are facing new technologies such as Container by Google. It's the new way of Application Virtualization. I think that Hitachi and other companies should follow these technologies for integration with new technologies such as container base and their products. I think that cloud integration is important with vVol technologies from VMware.

There will be many challenges, but we need more integration between F Storage and new technology for Cloud, vVol, and Container.

I would like the interface to be simplified more than it is. The interface can be improved with new technologies such as HTML5, which is being used by some storage vendors.

Hitachi interface management is not as easy as the EMC Unity series. It's better to use HTML5 for the management systems.

I have been using HDS solutions for over ten years and I have been using this solution for over five years.

This solution is stable. It is the most stable high-end solution in this area.

This product has eight controllers, it has special features for interconnecting on the backend, it has many front ports, and all of the components are redundant.

It is difficult to find issues with this product.

It was designed for those who don't want more than one minute of downtime a year. It's a 24/7 running product.

As you know, the HDS company is one of the main key players in the storage world and it always offers the most high-performance products, as these products are designed for large business environments, they have good scale-out and scale-up capabilities. For instance, the HDS claims that the latest one which it's named VSP 5500 have more than 21M IOPS only in 8U and 69PB of storage.

It depends on the circumstances. We choose different storage products based on the business needs and in my opinion, there is no solution that can meet all customer needs.

We use low-cost SAN storage for some needs, such as Archie Data, and in some other cases, like the core business software, high availability levels are very important so higher-level SAN storage is used.

The installation procedure it a bit difficult, because it is a high-end solution. With this type of product, the original company is interested in doing the setup for customers in the area, but because of sanctions we were not able to get support in our area. We faced many issued trying to learn to run this product.

The initial setup was done by the CE of the company, when that was complete the configuration was done in our data center.

This solution is cheaper than Dell EMC VMAX. When you are looking for a high-end solution, price matters, but availability and stability are more important than the price.

Companies are looking for stability and sustainability, and the price, but as I said, it's not as important as stability and sustainability.

I researched the internet for our customers to find the right solution for them, and I compared products in this category. In this comparison, I included:

• Dell EMC VMAX
• HPE 3PAR F-Class Storage

I started to research details, compare, and score each feature, until coming across the Hitachi VSP Series. The number two option was the HPE XP P6500 Series.

It was challenging, and it took five to six months to persuade our manager.  

The main functions in the G series and F series are the same, but if a customer is looking for high interoperability, then they should go for the F Series.

It's an attractive solution with several special features.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series for core products. We get new machines and move the data to new machines. In our organization, we have over 5,000 users.

it is help us to increase performance and ensure business continuity.

It is robust. It doesn't need too much troubleshooting. It is a good device.

The snapshot and clone operation functions can be made easier.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series for about six years.

It is highly stable. 

It has good scalability.

We have contacted them for a technical issue. Their technical support is good.

Positive

We have an older version of Hitachi, which is also a virtual storage platform but not the G Series. Also EMC VMAX 

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment took about a week.

Our vendor deployed it.

Dell EMC VMAX

I would recommend this solution. 

I would rate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series a ten out of ten. It is a good product.

I am using the latest update to the solution?

The solution is very good when it comes to performance with the data center. 

The solution is a storage Hitachi E, meaning it is an entry level enterprise solution. For mission critical issues the performance is low. 

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for two years, including the EF 700 and E Model, both of which I have been utilizing for a year apiece, in addition to the S Model. I use the solution to this day. 

The solution is stable. 

I have not tried the solution's scalability. 

The technical support and services are good, strong. 

The initial setup is easy.

The price per gigabyte is good and it is low when it comes to terabytes. 

We are in the process of evaluating the solution at present.

Overall, the solution is strong, easy and fast.

I would recommend the solution to others. 

I rate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform as a nine out of ten.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series are used for mission-critical storage for large companies.

The most valuable feature of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is the platform and overall usage has been good. We have not had very many issues.

The life-cycle of the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is too short. We only had approximately four or five years out of the solution before it was rendered its end of life.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series for approximately seven years.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is highly stable and reliable.

The scalability of the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is good.

The support for Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is very good.

I would advise others that are wanting to implement Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series to look carefully at the tools they need, such as management. It is important to evaluate this tool, it can be very useful. If they don't have these tools needed then it can be very difficult to receive reliable information.

The customer has an in-house team that deals with everyday operations. However, they hired us to do the second-level support. We have two people, that do the support. One is for the storage itself, and the other handles data protection.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series tools are highly specialized, such as management and performance tools and the overall solution is expensive. If customers want to have a lot of data in their hands, they need to purchase several solutions.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series is at its end of life, we do not sell them anymore.

I rate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series a nine out of ten.