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it_user252609 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Colonial Savings
Vendor
We were looking for a solution to improve latency. We also needed a new solution because our Dell Ecologic was down often.

What is most valuable?

Easy manageability, and the speed is very quick.

How has it helped my organization?

Less downtime, unlike our previous solution.

What needs improvement?

That’s hard to say because it’s pretty good for us. The areas that we would suggest for improvement, HP is already looking at.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It’s excellent; no complaints. I’m very impressed with it.

Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I’ve already scaled it twice and will scale it again.

How are customer service and support?

It’s also great. We’ve not really had a problem with it in over a year of use.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We chose HP to improve on the latency because we knew we needed something that could solve our new needs. Our last system, Dell Ecologic, was very bad and was down a lot.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was straightforward.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at EMC and HP. 3PAR is using some very high quality software, so we chose HP. Dreamworks uses HP, so we figured it would do us just fine.

What other advice do I have?

Look for something that is expandable and reliable. 3PAR is great.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user

Robert - sorry to read that you were driven to replace what you had because of reliability issues. That's never a good thing . Glad to have you as an HP Storage customer. For anyone that wants to learn more, here's a link to many HP 3PAR articles on my blog: hpstorage.me

I also manage an HP Storage LinkedIn Group that you can find at hpstorage.me It's a private group for customers, partners and HP employees so please join if you fit one of these groups.

PeerSpot user
IT-Consultant with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The wizard guides you through the installation process and the possibility/feature to move data across tiers (AO) is great.

What is most valuable?

  • Peer Motion
  • On-line import
  • AO

How has it helped my organization?

As a 3PAR consultant, I have installed systems for a lot of customers, municipalities, and other state authorities. I cannot speak for them, but the results are very good. The possibility/feature to move data across tiers (AO) has been a great feature, and of course the possibility to non-disruptively migrate from current storage system to 3PAR.

What needs improvement?

Deduplication on FC disks needs improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

As a 3PAR consultant, I’ve seen some deployment issues with the broadcast-handshake procedure between 3PAR and the service processor.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I did find a bug in the system in 3.1.2 MU3. Deleted data on the 3PAR did not reclaim the deleted space.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

No issues encountered.

Technical Support:

9/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

9/10.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is straightforward. The wizard guides you through the installation process, but I always install the 3PAR and SP via CLI to eliminate any deployment issues that may occur when using the wizard.

What about the implementation team?

Implementing 3PAR StoreServ for clients as a vendor, we have the highest level of expertise, but it would be naive to rate my own level of expertise without any of my clients' inputs. However, I’ve been working with implementation, upgrade and maintaining 3PAR systems for two years with certifications and continuous information regarding anything that happens within the 3PAR storage.

What was our ROI?

Since our company doesn’t own any 3PARs I cannot respond correctly on this question. I consolidate, install, upgrade, and maintain the 3PARs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Wait for the right opportunity as HP tends to do “3PAR bundles”. They bundle 3PAR storage and software licenses at a great discount, so never accept the listing price for a 3PAR, but that goes without saying.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

As an IT consultant, it’s my job to compare different storage solutions. Many of our customers want our consultation where I evaluate and recommend different products depending on the business needs and demands. The other products that usually come in play are Dell, EMC, and NetApp. I’ve also seen some evaluations on a “new” storage manufacturer, Tintri.

What other advice do I have?

I can clearly see a trend of implementing a full flash array instead of the traditional 3PAR hybrid solution. Why? Well, the cost of SSD is dropping steady and the $/GB is less than FC disks when using deduplication, which is to this date, only applicable on SSD tier. You will not only have lower $/GB, you also significantly increase the performance, stability, and durability. For a smooth start-up, make sure you have done a valid assessment in your environment before implementing a new 3PAR. Read about the different software that 3PAR can offer your business.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE 3PAR StoreServ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user229389 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect with 51-200 employees
Vendor
We are using a lot less power and space with this SAN compared to our previous solution.

What is most valuable?

The thin technology and adaptive optimization features make the SAN appear bigger and faster than what it replaced, all the while using a third of the rack space. We also use Flash SSD disks for adaptive optimization, and this speeds up the performance up to 10 times what it was.

How has it helped my organization?

We are using a lot less power and space with this SAN compared to our previous solution. This SAN only takes a third less power and capacity, yet it provides almost twice the performance.

What needs improvement?

The only area I would say that could use improvement is communication on what upgrades should be applied. We have been told that the re-seller cannot perform, nor recommend, upgrades.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the product for about two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Installation was quite easy, and we were using the SAN very quickly.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None! We had a failed disk and have had replacements before we even knew! Rebuild times are fast!

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We added a shelf online with no issues and the SAN was online during the upgrade.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Great, they are able to be reached quickly and without any issues.

Technical Support:

Support know the product very well and will escalate any issue quickly within their tiers and without being asked.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used an EMC solution before. The price, performance and features swayed us to HP 3PAR.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was reasonably easy. We used a CD and a VM template to “birth” the unit. It was all wizard driven and intuitive.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor team who were knowledgeable of the product.

What was our ROI?

Great! The product has exceeded our expectations.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product seemed to be too cheap when compared to replacing our existing SAN. Therefore, we were hesitant at the features and performance offered. I believe we spent around C$80k for the system. Maintenance and proactive support was included, so day to day costs are really only power.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We compared EMC and IBM, but both cost more and lacked key space and performance features.

What other advice do I have?

Compare all vendors carefully as there are a lot of features that appear to be similar but in actuality are very different.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a 3PAR reseller
PeerSpot user

Hi Dan - can you say what array HP 3PAR replaced? Thanks for the review. For anyone that wants to dive deeper, here's a link to many, many 3PAR articles on my blog: hpstorage.me

PeerSpot user
Storage Specialist at Informatics Services Corporation
Real User
Low latency and high performance for my VVoL
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of this solution is the native full mesh (multi-pathing)."
  • "I would like to have support for On-The-fly reallocation Data when using VVoL."

What is our primary use case?

I use this product in VMware Shared Storage. I work with VVoL, but I have a problem that is related to the update.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has provided me with very low latency and high performance.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is the native full mesh (multi-pathing).

What needs improvement?

I would like to have support for On-The-fly reallocation Data when using VVoL.For further explanation I must say When using vvol , you can have 3 tier in Storage .This tiers different in IO an Capacity feature.Usually tier 0 can support maximum IO and minimum Capacity and use SSD in this tier, Tier 1 between Tier 0 and 2 for Support IO and Capacity This layer is known as FC (Fast Class) nad Finally in tier 2 you Have only capacity and usually used NL disk for capacity .from that side in vmware Cluster equivalent this tier have a concept called Gold,Silver,Bronze that define in Storage Policy.You may want to first move a virtual machine to the silver group with disks; and then move it to another group, such as gold or bronze.This feature is based on the feature that the storage device provides and This feature is not yet available on the storage device, according to the documentation of HPE company will be presented in an update called T05 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Assistant Technology Director at a tech services company
Real User
The optimization features move chunklets or hot spots to faster drives, but the management interface is not intuitive
Pros and Cons
  • "The optimization features move chunklets or hot spots to faster drives."
  • "The 3PAR tool is cheaper to maintain with more storage available."
  • "The management interface is not intuitive."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is SAN for VMware hosts for hosted VMs for a K-12 education environment. Also, some space that we provisioned for security camera storage and backup targets.

How has it helped my organization?

We upgraded from HPE EVA and it was much easier to manage and provision LUNs, when necessary. Our EVA was maxed and was end of life. 

The 3PAR tool is cheaper to maintain with more storage available. 

What is most valuable?

The optimization features move chunklets or hot spots to faster drives. This way data which was getting hit most frequently was always on drives that could best handle the data, whether it was SQL data on SSD or rarely accessed file shares on the 7200 RPM drives.

What needs improvement?

The management interface is not intuitive. It is much better than EVA, but took some time to learn.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user783987 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Resilience, redundancy, and speed of the system keep our end users happy
Pros and Cons
  • "Having moved over from a lefthand, which was seven or eight years old, there's a massive boost in performance. It has definitely improved the speed, the responsiveness, of all our applications."
  • "Generally, the management of the multiple systems that we have is really the only problem, always having to go to all these separate tools to manage everything."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use is our new datacenter. We're using it to increase performance. 

It's performing really well.

How has it helped my organization?

Having moved over from a LeftHand, which was seven or eight years old, there's a massive boost in performance. It has definitely improved the speed, the responsiveness, of all our applications, which is always good.

What is most valuable?

  • Generally, the resilience and the redundancy of the system.
  • Speed has obviously helped.
  • We do a lot of replication, as well, with our other 3PARs, so it's keeping that data synchronized.

What needs improvement?

Just generally the management - which I know, they introduced a few new tools yesterday, here at the HPE Discover conference. Generally, the management of the multiple systems that we have. That's really the only problem, always having to go to all these separate tools to manage everything.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is so far so good. It has been pretty seamless. We've used it now about eight months and it's been stable since then.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We planned for scalability so we bought four enclosures, which was overkill, but it's planning ahead.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched mainly because of the end users, the customers, the guys that use the systems and the applications. They're the ones who start screaming when things are slow. We used to have that problem, where things were slow due to the storage bottleneck. But now we're finding other bottlenecks, so it's good.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward. I was in the datacenter with one of the HPE engineers and we went through everything. He was knowledgeable, he retired about a week after he set it up. So he had a lot of experience.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did try a few other vendors during a trial period. We simulated failovers just for fun, just to see how quickly they respond. Some of them had issues getting parts to us immediately.

What other advice do I have?

The most important criteria when selecting a vendor are 

  • reliability 
  • availability of parts. 

I give an eight out of 10, from working with it and using the features, but also seeing what some of the other competitors have out there. One of the big ones is Pure Storage which I was a big fan of. So, they were the competitor to the 3PAR, as well as Nimble, which was obviously acquired.

It came down to costing as well, in the end. But to be fair to the 3PAR, it wasn't comparing like with like. It was comparing an all-flash array with a hybrid 3PAR array.

Try to decide quickly. Have your criteria and stick to your criteria, rather than trying ten million different solutions and taking years to implement. That was the biggest issue we had, the fact that there are so many different vendors out there. If you're trying to create a proof of concept, it just eats away at time. At the end of the day, there are a lot of nice things with the 3PAR that made us select it. Try not to waste too much time trying everything.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user784014 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Of Infrastructure at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Remote Copy functionality supports our disaster recovery project; amazing performance

How has it helped my organization?

We started to initiate a business continuity project, to cover disaster recovery scenarios, and we decided to implement a 3PAR solution for the Remote Copy functionality from this area. We can share this with software integration and cover the business requirements.

What is most valuable?

We have never had problems, it's running well. The other point is the performance that the storage provides. We currently use 3PAR with full flash, and the performance is really amazing.

What needs improvement?

I saw recently saw that they will integrate the predictive software from Nimble with 3PAR, and I think that's a good move. With the next firmware release, software release, we will really profit from this integration. I think it's a really good idea that HPE is now integrating this as a possibility on 3PAR.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It will completely meet our needs, moving forward.

How is customer service and technical support?

It's difficult to say anything about tech support, because it's running so well that we are not regularly in contact with support. I think we had some issues during the implementation phase. We had, I would say, two or three times where we contacted the support, which was really good. I have no complaints. The knowledge and the competence were good.

What other advice do I have?

Because we are so happy with 3PAR, it's so reliable for us, for the moment we don't see any move to Nimble storage. It depends on the strategy from HPE. They will probably combine the two storage technologies; I don't know what will be the future.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user783906 - PeerSpot reviewer
Procurement Management at Mubadala
Vendor
Scalability is the main purpose, that I can scale out, keep adding more modules

How has it helped my organization?

We are trying to create a valued addition, because the project is still on, and we are looking at how it can benefit the business more. It's a new solution in place which we are looking at now.

What needs improvement?

At this stage I can't give you any feedback on that. It's too early.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No stability issues at this stage.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is the main purpose, that I can scale out with something, where I can keep adding more modules onto it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is good. They're knowledgeable. The people with whom I'm dealing are pretty good. We go through the usual channels, but right now we have a partner in place who is helping us out.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were running on some technologies which were going off the market, and we wanted to upgrade them. So we looked to put 3PAR in place, and we are moving into 3PAR now.

How was the initial setup?

It was not complex. It's pretty straightforward. It took approximately two and a half months, the project which we have run through it. So it's pretty good. And now that our actual deployment starts off, we'll get to know the actual time lines on it.

What other advice do I have?

When we look to work with a vendor we look at their reputation, and along with that is the way it can be scaled up. Also, the new technology innovations which can can be added to your portfolio must be excellent. That's where we started off moving into HPE.

At this stage I would rate it somewhere around eight out of 10, because there were some initial challenges in finalizing the design, etc. Now we are looking into the cloud solution as well, so we'll see how that goes.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free HPE 3PAR StoreServ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free HPE 3PAR StoreServ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.