The performance and the support are pretty good.
Director of Network Services at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
The most valuable features are performance and support.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
Performance. We used to be with NetApp. The overall performance is much better with this solution.
What needs improvement?
Maybe they could have better alerting. We've had an issue where we had a flapping network link, and it didn't tell us that was happening. We only saw symptoms of the issue. I'd like to see better reporting for those types of issues. Even though the support is better than NetApp was, there are still some improvements they could make in their support.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
I have used technical support and it usually is good. Their support is very hands-on compared to NetApp. Sometimes we have issues where they, just like any other vendor, point fingers at either networking or the hardware. We've encountered that with them, as well. Overall, support was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The old system was outdated. We were having performance issues with it and the support wasn't great. It was just time to shop for a new the solution. When selecting a vendor, I look for support, performance, and customization.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in the setup and it was straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Our shortlist included Nimble and 3PAR. One reason we changed was because we have local support.
What other advice do I have?
I still think it is the best solution out there. HPE will help support issues or even upgrades.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Global Head of Server and Storage Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It can provide different endpoints with different amounts of scalable storage.
What is most valuable?
- The ease of scaling.
- It's ability to provide different endpoints with different amounts of scalable storage.
- The way that it integrates with different HPE systems, such as the CLX, which is a cluster extensions package.
- The ability to migrate workloads from one data center to another.
How has it helped my organization?
The greatest benefit is its uptime. Also, performance and flexibility are very good. It runs both virtual workloads, as well as, native presentation workloads for both Windows and Unix environments. That's the main benefit. One of the other benefits is the way that it does consolidation and deduplication inline with the flash arrays.
What needs improvement?
We rely on WORM, so some sort of WORM feature would be good. We have to use other platforms for that. It would be nice to have that on the table right here.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We've had no issues with stability. All failures have been handled seamlessly within the platform. We've had controllers fail and they haven't impacted performance or stability at all. All very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling is really easy. We can do online scale-ups adding more capacity and adding controllers without impact to the serviceability of the system. It’s all very good.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support's been very good. The dedicated help desk for the 3PAR platform has always been very good. We’ve used them for troubleshooting where certain things don't happen the way that you'd expect them to. Sometimes this is our perception of what we feel we should do and not necessarily a shortcoming of the platform. It's just something we'd expect them to do.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a legacy EVA system. It was just a natural choice. We needed to maintain the CLX packages that were also available for the EVAs. So when we wanted to refresh, it was the natural solution because it supported that and it was more up-to-date technology.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in the scoping of the solution. We were able to consolidate down from some of the old arrays very easily. In terms of implementation, I can only defer to the amount of time that it took, because it only took a couple days after the issue.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were looking at NetApp and EMC.
What other advice do I have?
When picking a vendor, the ability to execute on time and deliver on time is most important.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Systems Engineering Manager at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The benefits are the integration with the rest of our system, including solutions for system administration.
Valuable Features
I think it's the direction in which they're moving in terms of flash storage and being able to take your legacy systems, integrate the old hard drives with flash storage and perform the migrations. Especially when including virtualization and trying to shrink your data center and improve performance.
Improvements to My Organization
HPE has been our de facto standard, and the benefits are the integration with the rest of our system, including solutions for system administration of having one interface with OneView and being able to use 3PAR with your storage and manage everything. The integration with virtualization as all that just brings down cost with administration, and to me that's one of the biggest things it brings.
Stability Issues
Stability has always been there. Going back to my reliability comment that it's always been very reliable, we've never had any major issues. When there has been issues, it's always been preventative maintenance kind of things that are addressed pretty quickly. With the redundancy that you get in the system, we've never had an outage, per say. Something that you have to maybe go fix, but not a complete downtime.
Scalability Issues
We never buy just for what we need at the time, we always try to make sure we get the full lifecycle use of the product, and so with 3PAR, it might include having the expandability to add more shelves, or looking at the drives that are denser and things like that, so being able to mix and match parts and stuff.
The scalability has always been there as well, and like I said, in the old version of the BladeSystem, the c7000, that was around for like 10 years, so it's scaled very well. I've never had a problem with scaling.
Customer Service and Technical Support
We have technical account managers, and we call them to handle any kind of maintenance agreement or things like that, and have had very good support from them. If there's something that they can't answer, they're always willing to reach back and get the right point of contact. We've had very good dealings with our technical account manager and technical support.
Initial Setup
There's been some cases where we have migrated systems from one data center into our data center, and done consolidations. Some of that requires backing up older platforms, older systems, and bringing them in. We had one scenario where we migrated a customer, and they were using old LTO tape drives, coming into a new system which didn't support that. In those kind of cases, we had to reach out to HPE for support. Those were things we could handle. Again, during those migrations, I can't say that there was anything that we missed our window. Everything worked out very well.
Other Solutions Considered
We did a trade study between 3PAR and some of the other ones like Pure Storage. I would just say one thing we saw that I think could be helpful is maybe looking at dedupe and how their competitors are doing it, and making sure that they stay aware of what those other competitors are doing as well.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of Engineering at Informatics (Private) Limited
An enterprise storage solution that is deployed in banking and insurance companies, but it stability could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "HPE 3PAR StoreServ is an enterprise storage that is mainly deployed in enterprise scenarios like banking and insurance."
- "The solution’s stability could be improved."
What is most valuable?
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is an enterprise storage that is mainly deployed in enterprise scenarios like banking and insurance.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s stability could be improved.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ an eight out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 20 customers use the solution extensively in their companies.
I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ a seven out of ten for scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward if it is a single server. If there are multiple servers, the initial setup becomes complex.
What about the implementation team?
A single server takes an hour to be deployed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution has two parts: software and hardware, and you need to buy licenses for some features.
What other advice do I have?
One admin is enough to maintain the solution if it is single storage. A complex environment with a heavy workload will need more people to maintain the solution.
I would recommend HPE 3PAR StoreServ to users based on their use cases.
Overall, I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
GM-IT at BSE
An easy-to-deploy and scalable storage product with an experienced support team
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup was very straightforward."
- "The tool is old."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution for capacity storage.
What is most valuable?
The initial setup was very straightforward.
What needs improvement?
We are planning to change the storage soon. The tool is old. We are looking for enterprise-grade storage with NVMe capabilities, low latency, and higher responses.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution since 2018.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool’s scalability is good. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. The product is not for users. It is used by an application. We are using 70% of the total capacity of the tool. We are looking to change the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support team has good capabilities. The team has people with good experience.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. The deployment took three to four months.
What about the implementation team?
We have an on-site team. One or two people are required for implementation and deployment.
What other advice do I have?
We choose the solution because HPE is a long-term partner. Overall, I rate the solution an eight 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.
Team Leader Presales at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Great for hosting virtual infrastructure with helpful technical support and good performance
Pros and Cons
- "We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that."
- "The product is quite expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We've only used this solution for two instances. Most of the time we are using HP MSA fiber channel storage, the 1060 or 2060. We primarily use the solution for virtualization. We're hosting virtual machines on the 3PAR storage.
What is most valuable?
We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that.
The product is stable.
What needs improvement?
The product is quite expensive. The costs involved are high.
We would like the product to make it more of a straightforward procedure when we need to configure storage. There were quite a lot of options and parameters that we don't have knowledge of. We used some external company to make the configuration for us, for the 3PAR storage.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for a few years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product is good. They offer good performance. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't attempted to scale the solution yet. Therefore, I can't speak to how easy it would be to expand it.
That said, from what I've seen, it does appear to be simple to scale.
We have 100 users on the product right now.
At this point, we do not have plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
We've contacted technical support from HP for 3PAR in the past. We needed to upgrade the firmware of the storage. We needed some support from HP, which was excellent. We are satisfied so far. There have been no issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
We're aware of a few different storage options. 3PAR, Nimble, and Premier Storage are pretty expensive. This brings the cost up too high for some projects.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't handle the initial setup or the configuration. I can't speak to how the setup went, however, it was my understanding that it was a bit complex.
There was two or three technical personnel that were used to handle the initial setup. They were admins and engineers.
What about the implementation team?
It is my understanding that we had an external company configure the storage. It is not so straightforward, as far as I remember.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a very expensive product. Companies need to be aware of that going in.
What other advice do I have?
I cannot recommend 3PAR. Most of the cases can be covered with entry-level storage, which is the HP MSA. 3PAR is needed for some quite big platforms or environments. Most of the time, the entry-level MSA storage is more than enough.
I'd rate the solution at an eight 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.
IT Coordinator at HMY
It's fast and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable."
- "Setting up 3PAR is somewhat complicated, and it took about a week."
What is our primary use case?
We use 3PAR for data storage in a factory setting. We currently have about 200 users working with it across multiple departments, including production and finance.
What is most valuable?
We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable. I don't know what else to say about it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using 3PAR for about six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
3PAR is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
3PAR is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
One of 3PAR's advantages is that it's easy to find a qualified technician. It's such a common device. We are using it in Turkey. France, Spain, and other locations.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
3PAR is our first all-flash storage array. We had a different storage solution before, but it wasn't all-flash.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up 3PAR is somewhat complicated, and it took about a week. We need about two or three people for maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
HPE does the installation themselves. They were on time and fast.
What was our ROI?
We've seen a return on our investment, but it's hard to calculate it precisely. We plan to use it for the project for a minimum of five years, maybe more.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay a yearly license. It's affordable.
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.
Director of Technology Services at a educational organization with 201-500 employees
Secure, stable, scalable, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "The interface could be improved to match the system."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for our financial system.
What needs improvement?
The interface could be improved to match the system.
The initial setup could be simplified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for three years.
We are using a 3PAR 8800.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a stable solution. We haven't had it go down.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Our experience with technical support was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use any other solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex.
I would suggest that you don't install it on your own, and you get help from an HPE solution provider or an architect to assist you with that.
What about the implementation team?
We had help from an HPE solution provider.
What was our ROI?
You are not spending that money to truly get ROI on the equipment. You are basically trusting that device to keep you safe.
We have had it for three years and we haven't had one hiccup. It was money well spent. The $60,000 was well spent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We purchased the total package for approximately $60,000. That was purchasing it outright.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are an HP shop. It was natural for us to go with HPE for the storage solution. When we were looking, there were other solutions out there such as Dell EMC but we opted not to go with them. We decided to stick with an HPE brand solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ and eight 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.
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Updated: November 2024
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One thing to be wary of is claimed de-dup ratios, unless you have a blocksize of 16KB or multiple thereof you will not see anything like HPe's claimed de-dup ratio.
We got 4 x HP 3PAR 8440's all-SSD (all flash is something quite different) which was bought on a claimed 1.9:1 de-dup (the choice of vendor being poitical rather than based on relative values of the offerings we considered) and we are seeing 1.1:1 to 1.3:1 after moving approx. 550TB to them.
We were told after install that to get the good de-dup we need to re-blocksize our OS's to 16kB or multiples, the OS's (Windows 2k8/2k12 & Linux 6/7) are default of 4KB.
With over 3,500 VM's this is a tall order!