HPE 3PAR StoreServ Reviews

We use HPE 3PAR StoreServ for data storage. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) had something in the contract because if you can compress data very well, you don't need that much capacity in your systems. If it was not possible to compress to a certain degree, they put some extra capacity in the systems. We bought that borrowed capacity but they separated the one-piece storage boxes added to our environment to get along with that bigger growth in capacity. Despite that, it is a wonderful system with an excellent graphical user interface. Still, new functions are being rolled out.

I've seen a lot of data storage systems. It's the only storage system you can watch over the application time and it keeps measuring it. We have some thresholds on our end on it, a very good graphical user interface and reporting. 

There are a lot of screens for easy management where you can change some settings. But after a few years, the important settings were better after an upgrade, and all the vendors have other ways to upgrade their systems.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ has limited flexibility in building replication solutions. There are limitations to the number of IOPS the system can do. It's not bad as it is doing its job. However, for the application, if you need a toolbox, you can build everything concerning periodic replication modes of synchronous or asynchronous three-site, four-site, with supported cascading which requires you to buy an IBM product. 

It also takes a few hours to one day to upgrade the system and sometimes; it takes more time because, in some HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20000 Storage, you have an eight-node system. If you do an upgrade, you do it node by node and every node might take more than an hour.

I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for the past seven years.

Last year after summer, HPE had to locate replication groups getting stopped and took a lot of time to find out what's happening, and yet we still don't know what's happening over there. It feels like the message is quite clear after replicating from A to B, and it states that B is not responding very well.

There is a timeout, and it stops the replication group because there is no stability or consistency and is not good at that moment. So that might be negative, but when was the last time? I think in November of last year.

At one point, some remote copy groups stopped working, and we used a disaster recovery plan because, in production, we replicate everything from A to B and then split up into some remote copy groups, gathering together some data source and clusters. If one of those remote copy groups stops, you don't have DFP anymore and you have to restart them. And last year after starting one of those replication groups; we had some performance issues because they're trying to get in sync as soon as possible using all the resources, so we had to plan very well outside the business hours.

We have proactive datacenter care; I call it a storage advocate, and we can send every question to them and we get quick answers. They also help to find out if new releases are available and other services. For now, they have more insights on that. They have better sources sometimes, and I have better sources than them sometimes, but they do a great job and they also assisted us concerning the compression issue we had at the beginning.

It is quite difficult to decide on the cost. At one point, I was the project lead to cover with some people, but the price was important and we had its compression calculated. At that moment, it was fair because that was one of the things moving their product due to the cost of HPE 3PAR StoreServ as they were competing with Hitachi and IBM A9000, which I'm not sure if is still available. 

We have done total cost of ownership calculations over the past five years, and we also ask for some cost prices for the sixth and seventh year so that we can get some insights into what happens after those five years. We have some systems that are five years old and we keep them because it's flash data storage. It's still almost a three terabyte solid-state drive, and the support cost is not that high. We'll have a look after that. I see other things happening on the Hitachi boxes with all those license defeats. This is also positive for HPE 3PAR StoreServ, everything is on the license. When we bought the systems, it was the case and then I've been reading something about it. You can buy the rest of the licenses. If you buy a system, that will not be replicated to another system, then you get a license without replication software.

The job of direct channel support to HPE 3PAR StoreServ is not an end of life or end of support but HPE Primera has now replaced it and I hope they get all the functionality in there like the HPE 3PAR. I remember it seems like HPE 3PAR and HPE Primera have support for volume plugins and that will be a big game if they can implement volumes on their system because that kind of release is much better than the datastore level.

We use 3PAR as our primary storage array.

We have been able to scale faster and get our applications out in much less time. We don't need to worry about the platform's ability to manage the workload, so we are pretty happy.

Our VMware platform sits on 3PAR. We also have databases, ERP applications, and websites running on it. 

All-Flash also positions our organization for growth. It certainly has its place. We don't use All-Flash because the performance of the existing arrays knows the job, but I certainly see where if we are doing data-intensive operations it could assist us.

We deployed InfoSight predictive analytics not too long ago. It improved our management of VMs. We are now able to see a lot more using InfoSight and we have a pretty good idea of exactly what's going on in our storage array.

The storage array absolutely increases performance. Compared with what we had before 3PAR, this has certainly done its job.

The solution has also helped us reduce time to deployment, I would say by at least 30%. It's easier for us to deploy. We get our servers up and running quickly and that way we support our environment faster so we can be more agile.

It has also significantly improved throughput, so we don't need to worry about performance for any of our platforms.

The ease of maintenance is what is most valuable for us. We don't need to worry about upgrading the platform. HPE takes care of it for us.

Deduplication functionality is pretty good. We have had it for quite a few years. We are pretty impressed with their capabilities and we've never really had a problem.

As it is, it does its job very well, so it's very difficult for me to say what we should be looking for in the next platform. I think cloud integration would probably be the biggest part because that's where everyone is going and the seamless integration between on-premise and cloud is an important part of any IT strategy today.

It's very stable.

Also, the solution's availability is remarkable. We have never had a breakdown over a storage array.

It's very scalable as well. We never had a problem where that is concerned.

They are pretty good at what they do. Those guys fix whatever the problem is. We just kind of plug it in and leave. We don't look back at it again.

We previously used HPE. We had to upgrade because our previous platform was end of life.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. The guys knew what they're doing and I have a technical team to assist as well.

HPE did the deployment for us. Their onboarding process is pretty good.

We have absolutely seen a return on our investment. I don't have numbers offhand, but the organization has certainly grown significantly as a result of the kind of platform that we have deployed.

All of the tier one vendors were on there: Dell EMC, etc. From a perspective of price point, performance, and integrity, we felt that HPE gave us the best value.

It's not necessarily about the price. The price is certainly an important factor, but what the solution does and how it supports you is even more important than price.

Our biggest lesson was that we need to do our homework and make sure that we're going with a vendor that can support us in the long term.

I would probably rate this as eight and a half out of ten. It does what it's supposed to and does that very well, even if there are areas to improve on. More integration with cloud would be great. But what it does, it does very well.

We use HPE 3PAR StoreServ for all the storage needs for the hospital I work at.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ has improved our organization from its ease of use and high availability.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ is easy to use, fully featured, and has a great graphical user interface.

The configuration and flexibility should improve.

I have been using HPE 3PAR StoreServ for approximately seven years.

I have found the stability to be very high.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ is scalable but it has limits.

We have approximately 5,000 users using this solution across all departments. The solution is being extensively used in our organization.

The vendor support is very helpful.

The configuration is difficult but we had help from HPE 3PAR StoreServ. The whole process of the implementation took approximately one week.

We used vendor support to help us with the implementation of HPE 3PAR StoreServ. The representative was excellent.

We have one administrator that does the maintenance and upgrades of the solution.

The licensing cost for HPE 3PAR StoreServ is expensive.

We have evaluated the IBM FlashSystem solution and we are switching everything over from HPE 3PAR StoreServ.

My advice to those wanting to implement this solution would be to find a good reseller who has expertise in HPE 3PAR StoreServ.

I rate HPE 3PAR StoreServ an eight out of ten.

We have deployed HPE 3PAR systems on all database-related storage including MSSQL and Oracle. All of the SQL databases are running on VMware, and the database-related storage is mounted as RDM. The Oracle database is mounted directly to HPE 3PAR with remote-copy enabled.

HPE 3PAR provides fast and reliable storage for our critical systems like the database (MSSQL and Oracle). It also improved the availability of the system and at the same time provides a Disaster Recovery solution by using the remote-copy feature.

The adaptive optimization is also a factor in maximizing the capability of the system.

The most valuable features of this solution are Remote-copy and Adaptive Optimization. 

Remote-copy provides high availability and disaster recovery for the connected clients.

The Adaptive Optimization provides tiering and optimizes the storage requirement of the client based on its load from time to time.

The cloud-based monitoring Infosight would be better if users are automatically enrolled in the cloud/group based on the configuration or information gathered or uploaded on the internet.

The auto-discovery of the system is not easy for first-time users.

I have been using this solution for 5 years.

This is one of the best solutions if you want to have a stable and highly reliable system.

This is a highly scalable system.

Technical support assisted us with a smooth and fast installation.

Previously we were using HP EVA but since this is an old solution, we wanted to upgrade. We wanted to try a newer solution with almost the same features, like HPE 3PAR.

The initial setup for this solution is indeed straightforward, although HP will not allow non-HP engineers to do the initial setup.

The implementation was completed by an HP engineer through the vendor.

The cost is reasonable given that the licensing is all included once you purchase it.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.

The setup is pretty straightforward but HP only allows their engineers to do the setup. This gives us peace of mind for the setup.

We are using 3PAR for production workloads, processing insurance policies and claims, file shares, and storage.

It has been performing well so far. We have had a few hiccups on the configuration side, but we have been working with HPE on them. For the most part, the product has been pretty seamless.

It had our organization start to think like an actual organization. A lot of stuff came out where the management of our workloads has improved dramatically.

We have gotten out of the mindset of physical is better; virtualization has taken hold and is starting to take off. We are going through the process of consolidation to 100% virtual. It has been incremental growth over a short period of time.

I live in Houston, so disaster recovery (DR) is very important, and the site-to-site replication is huge. I love that feature. We have our backups set up to replicate between two sites, then we also have our storage set up to replicate between two sites. The next piece would probably be to stack on a synergy appliance and be able to get our compute layer replicated between the two sites as well, which would round out that whole DR scenario.

What appeals to me is having mobile functionality. There is a vendor portal for 3PAR for whatever you want to purchase. I would like to see something from an administrator's standpoint, as opposed to having to go to a web browser, where you get a ping on your phone which says, "Your license is coming up for renewal," or, "You have a drive that is bad," in conjunction with stuff, such as InfoSight.

This is something which provides value back to me, because then I am not having to constantly babysit my vendors and say, "When do I have renewals coming due?" It is tough to get vendors who engage with you on that level. They go back and say, "Just a heads up, but these are what are coming due." Maybe they can backfill that with a mobile app.

My admins like having this functionality and direct integration, where it is like, "I need to do this, this, and this." If they could do it all from their phone that would be better. Though, sometimes it is tough, because of tiny phones, and all there is to use is a web browser. It can be hard to read on a smaller screen. If it is a mobile app, maybe it could be finessed into something where basic tasks could be done.

After we got past all the hiccups with the conditional configuration, the stability has been rock solid. I like the simplicity of it. We do not have to fidget with it a whole lot once we have it set up correctly. It has been stable and performs well, so I have no complaints whatsoever.

Scalability is incredible. We have a single server cabinet today, but we can grow it to as many cabinets as we need.

We go through a third party. We did not use HPE tech support unless we need to escalate an issue.

Sadly, the support from HPE has not been all that great. It is tough to get a tech out or get a response from some of the techs that we have.

I was not involved in the initial setup. When I came onboard, the product was already in the environment. 

We have already seen ROI. We have had it in the environment for about three months. It has been absolutely tremendous. Workloads have improved in performance. We do not have a lot of the same struggles that we used to.

It is stable. It does what its supposed to. You can feed it compute and storage as you need to. Whereas with our standard DL380 and ML350 servers, once you get to a certain point, that is as big as you can get. With this product, you can throw another shelf of storage or blade at it and grow it as much as you need to. 

As our workloads have increased, we have been able to finesse those into a good size to where they are valuable for us.

We had to go back and purchase iLO licenses and brocade switches for the flex fabric to have a complete solution.

Our organization looked at NetApp and Pure Storage. Pure Storage was just too expensive. NetApp was good, but they did not have anybody familiar with the NetApp configuration.

Our biggest requirement was ease of use. HPE seemed to have all the pieces that we needed, and it easy enough to get somebody trained up on how to manage it.

Understand your needs first. If you do not have a need for a highly technical solution, or you have workloads which are not high-performing. 3PAR is a perfect fit.

Understand your environment. Know what you are getting into. Research the different tools which are out there. Make sure that it is a good fit. It is nice to have the high performance stuff, but if you do not have high performance workloads, keep it simple and 3PAR is simple for us.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:  Our biggest requirement was ease of use. Scalability was another. We can scale it up pretty much as big as we need to. Those were the two biggest criteria.

The primary use case for 3PAR would be security video recording, and the security video is used for multiple purposes. In the healthcare environment, it will be used for real-time locating, patient wandering, infant abduction, asset tracking, and staff duress.

Taking it to the next level of healthcare, in pharmaceuticals one has to keep track of the production and movement of products and retain those records for a period of two years, as per federal regulations. So now, we need multiple levels of storage: immediate storage, short-term, and long-term, with the data being kept for up to two years.

In these scenarios, 3PAR is an ideal solution, and we've had a lot of success because of its capabilities and the different types of storage. You can mix SSDs with running drives and slower drives for longer-term storage, minimizing your cost but maximizing your storage. And you can also evolve storage as needed. You can increase the amount of storage by adding in drives on the fly, as the need arises. 3PAR provides a very ideal solution for some of my customers.

It gives organizations a single point of storage and single point of backup. I would call it a "single repository" of all your data with a good archiving system. Those are the biggest benefits I see.

There are lots of valuable features, so it's difficult to isolate a few. Number one, being able to provision drives on demand, as opposed to populating a whole stack of drives and not using them. In the latter scenario, you are locking your money in, you don't get a return on investment. On the fly, you can build up your storage as needed, so that's a very good feature. 

The second one is the mixture of drives. You can have SSD drives, fast disk drives, and slower drives, redundancy between drives, and hot-swappable drives on the SSDs, the faster hard drives, and the slower drives. This is a huge advantage as opposed to some other systems out there.

And of course, there are plugins and compatibility with the standard HPE hardware and it gives you a single panel to view the performance of your devices. From a single panel, I can see the performance of my service, my network, and my storage.

I would like to see them lower costs.

It would also help if they integrate current technologies, newer technologies, and more efficient technologies, as time progresses. For example, integrate the fourth level of NAND devices. I believe at the moment we have third-level NAND load-leveling in place. I know these devices are around the corner. In the not too distant future, they should add these types of drives in there. That will give us much faster access. Hopefully, in time, we will replace the spinning hard drives with SSDs only, and the different types of SSDs.

Hot-swappable drives and built-in redundancy gives stability to the solution.

Being able to add drives on the fly gives the solution scalability.

Most of my projects are large P3 (public-private partnership) projects, where we do design, build, and maintenance of a facility for up to 20 to 25 years. We then return it to the client with another 10 years of service. So, upfront, I have to decide what solutions to put in there that will give me the minimal refresh over a longer period of time. I have to weigh the pros and cons of how much I spend upfront and what my maintenance cost will be over time. That's where the 3PAR solution is a good solution for me. It gives me fewer refreshes over a period of time and yet, at the end of the contract, I can still return it to the client with another 10 years of service.

My clients rely on me for evaluating vendors. One of the things I do is take the data sheets from multiple suppliers, compare them, see what is the best fit for the client and then, of course, use my own judgment and experience with my other clients on the given product. Fortunately, 3PAR has been a good product, so, I have no hesitation in recommending it and moving forward with it.

My involvement is primarily in the initial design of the system. I'm not involved with the actual setup. I will engage vendors recommended by HPE, or HPE-authorized vendors, to do the setup for me.

Go out, do your research first on the different products that are out there and make the judgment for yourself. The information is out there.

This solution hosts our core banking system. Mostly everyone in the bank uses it — about 1,000 users.

The features which are most valuable are the availability of the system and the management.

We do see room for improvement, especially in regard to expanding the defined storage areas.

The alerting system could also be improved. If there are issues with the system, it's supposed to send emails and SMS alerts — this could be improved.

I have been using this product since 2017 — about five years.

It's very stable. It has never broken down.

It's scalable. Only now it has reached end-of-life.

The technical support is very good.

We were working with an HPE storage called HPE EVA. We switched over to HPE 3PAR StoreServ because EVA's technology was end-of-life.

The initial setup was complex because we didn't have experience with it. 

We had a consultant set it up for us. It took about a month.

This solution is expensive. We pay every year for support. It's a lump sum because we pay for data center support services, and everything is included in one. 

Currently, we're looking at HPE Primera and Nimble Storage. 

It's a very good system, especially the All-Flash system. That's quite good. The only downside is the price — otherwise, the product is perfect. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.

We use this solution internally for our test environments.

This solution handles everything to do with our business. If it’s down then we can’t deliver to our customers. We can do more, faster, whether it's spinning up more virtual machines or handling large amounts of data.

The All-Flash has positioned us for growth because we can do more. Going past traditional hard drives has really been fantastic for us. Our performance has increased by anywhere from fifty to one hundred percent. Moreover, our deployment time has been reduced by about fifty percent.

For us, the increase in throughput translates to an increase in productivity.

The most valuable feature of this solution is its security.

The deduplication functionality is fantastic.

We had a minor error when we were configuring this system, which initially detracted from its overall stability.

We had some minor issues at first, although it was mostly due to configuration. Since those were ironed out it's been very smooth.

The scalability of this solution is excellent.

Technical support for this solution has been great.

Prior to implementing this solution we were using one by Dell. We were not meeting our commitments to customers because it was not meeting our performance requirements.

We had a lot of legacy hardware in our environment, and the step into the future by implementing this solution has been fantastic.

The initial setup was a little complex. It was our first time setting it up but now as we're doing another iteration it is much smoother.

We used a consultant to assist with our deployment and it was a good experience.

We get about twenty percent more productivity out of our people because we use this solution.

We do not have any licensing fees.

We only considered solutions by HPE because we have a partnership between our companies and they are our number one pick.

This product has met our expectations. Once we got past the minor configuration issues, it's been smooth sailing, so I'm very happy with it. It is important to understand the terminology upfront because it helps prepare to do the actual implementation.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.