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Systems Specialist at Vantage Point
Real User
Improved storage performance, has an availability guarantee, and good for predicting problems
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to deploy and maintain and it's made everything faster."
  • "I'm not sure if I've gone through all the features. There's always room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use it in our customer environment that has more than two or three hosts. We don't have to worry about meeting any of the network vendor requirements for storage.

How has it helped my organization?

It's made everything faster.  On the array that we use internally, it has eliminated all of our storage bottlenecks, which has really quieted down all of our alarm systems, so it just made our days quieter.

What is most valuable?

It's easy to deploy and maintain, and it's made everything faster. 

It does offer a cloud-like infrastructure. However, it depends on what you are trying to do. The cloud-like perception is mostly seen during the deployment of HP GreenLake. While it is multi-tenant, that's not how we use it day to day.

While it's good for predicting problems, we don't have many. I don't know how many tens of thousands of sensors are on the Alletra arrays. Whenever there has ever been a problem, there has been a sensor, an email, et cetera. If it's a problem with the hardware or a failure that's even pending, something gets shipped out, and a case is auto-created and auto-closed for us. So it pretty much just does all of it.

The data availability guarantee is crucial. While it doesn't reduce the time spend on storage provisioning, it's fixed and has made the management easier. That's where its time savings comes into play.

It's improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs. I don't know what our figure was before, but it's at least double, and we upgraded from a Dell EMC Unity.

It's reduced the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. It's not that we have so many storage-related support tickets. It's that when we have storage issues, latency issues, or alarms, someone has to look into them. I'm not sure if it's the product itself that's made this better or if it's been the upgrade and support that we get from HPE. 

Our main array that we upgraded from was a Dell EMC Unity. We also had Nimble and MSA storage in the network. The reason we switched is we just needed the performance and the networking.

What needs improvement?

I'm not sure if I've gone through all the features. There's always room for improvement. 

I'd like an easier way to tune the alerts that email us. If we have a remote site that has issues, we have alerts that queue up and then once that gets resolved everyone gets flooded with alerts. 

Buyer's Guide
HPE Alletra Storage
September 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE Alletra Storage. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for the last three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. I've never had an issue with one dying. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

While it may be possible that the solution is infinitely scalable, I don't have the network need to continuously scale up. I don't know where the ceiling is.

How are customer service and support?

HPE Nimble support is world-class. I'd rate it ten out of ten. Non-Nimble storage support is horrific. I'd rate it two out of ten since it takes so much longer to get to the correct team. Once you get to someone, the support is pretty good. It's just getting there that is hard. 

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

We previously used a Dell EMC Unity. We also had Nimble and ASA storage in the network.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying the Alletra iSCSI platform was easy peasy. I could do it in my sleep. The Alletra dHCI platform was more of a headache. It requires a lot more planning and is more unforgiving during the initial setup. Once it's up and running, it's excellent.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant to assist with the implementation. 

What was our ROI?

We've witnessed ROI in terms of smoothing out the bottlenecks and discovering the root problems. I don't have specific KPIs or metrics for ROI.

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

The pricing is very good. That said, every vendor is a spiderweb to navigate. It's a pain, everywhere.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated five different vendor solutions and this one, based on its performance and cost, was a win-win. We had hands-on experience and were more comfortable with HPE products. That said, the main driving factor was the cost.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's my personal favorite piece of storage. That said, there's always a new product and feature coming up in tech. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Shahid Mirabutalibov - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Provides reliable storage, speed, and performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's most valuable features are reliable storage, speed, and performance."
  • "We faced many problems with HPE Alletra 6000, and we did not understand whether it was because of some issue with the controllers or the disk."

What is our primary use case?

HPE Alletra Storage is mainly used as a database.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable features are reliable storage, speed, and performance.

HPE Alletra Storage’s hard disk change makes it good for predicting problems and preventing them before they occur.

What needs improvement?

We faced many problems with HPE Alletra 6000, and we did not understand whether it was because of some issue with the controllers or the disk. However, we changed it, and we don't use it anymore.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using HPE Alletra Storage for five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think the solution's scalability is enough for us because we cannot use one storage for all. We get a lot of storage and share data.

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

We previously used HPE MSA, HPE 3PAR, and HPE EVA.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is smooth.

What other advice do I have?

We use the HPE Alletra 9060, HPE Alletra 9080, and HPE Alletra 6000 versions of the solution. We may consider using other vendors, such as Pure Storage or Dell Storage, in the future because we want to know which one offers the best price.

We chose HPE Alletra Storage because we have the best HPE partner to help us whenever we have a problem. He's one of the best vendors in our country. This is very important for us because some vendors or partners are not so efficient. Since we use the solution in banking, we cannot stop the systems. We call our vendor for support and to understand the problem, and they always help us.

We have around 50 to 60 terabytes in one storage.

Overall, I rate the solution ten 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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Buyer's Guide
HPE Alletra Storage
September 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE Alletra Storage. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Systems Storage Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A clear winner on price per terabyte and very good for redundancy and performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The overall redundancy and performance of the system is valuable."
  • "They can continue developing their V vaults and peer persistence. They can implement active-active peer persistence so that our organization can use it."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for our backend Tier 0 storage.

How has it helped my organization?

It is the core foundation for our disaster recovery plan and high availability plan. We use Peer Persistence in conjunction with VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster to fail over critical workloads between data centers on a quarterly basis.

HPE Alletra Storage tries to provide a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. The cloud-like operational model has not affected operations such as deployment, provisioning, and day-to-day management. It is not enterprise-ready.

We have not seen much evidence of the fact that HPE Alletra Storage can predict problems and prevent them before they occur.

It is important that they guarantee data availability. They have had to pay up multiple times because they were not able to provide the availability, and so far, they have kept their word.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. It has saved about 20% of the time. With each iteration, they are getting better at their user interface.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPS. There is about 50% improvement.

What is most valuable?

Multi-node or the four controllers and the port persistence are valuable. The overall redundancy and performance of the system is valuable.

What needs improvement?

They can continue developing their V vaults and peer persistence. They can implement active-active peer persistence so that our organization can use it.

In the next release, we would like more V vault support with metro clustering or peer persistence.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using HPE Alletra Storage for two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We were early adopters, so we got to see some of the worst of Alletra. Since then, it has become much more stable. It is definitely a much more stable product now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is pretty good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

HPE has dedicated a lot of resources to our organization to ensure that we are successful. There is definitely a lot of collaboration between our organizations to support Alletra.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We were using 3PAR and Primera. We switched because it was a refresh into the newer technologies.

How was the initial setup?

We are mostly on-prem, but we do use Azure as we have started to do a hybrid model. 

Its deployment was very smooth and simple.

What about the implementation team?

We did it ourselves. It was very straightforward.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. As data continues to grow in our environment, driving down the price per terabyte is essential for us to be able to continue to afford the performance they give us.

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

HPE was a clear winner on price per terabyte. It was very smooth.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Pure, and we evaluated EMC. The main difference was the price per terabyte.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage an eight out of ten. If they can improve some of the things, that would take it to ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Jacob Jorgensen - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Predicts problems, offers excellent deduplication and has a data availability guarantee
Pros and Cons
  • "We have improved storage performance."
  • "The solution could use more monitoring of their split-brain system controllers."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for VM storage, file servers, and things like that. 

We've got around 75 VMs that run on the storage arrays. So the deduplication and features like that allow us to store a lot more on them than if we just did physical drives. 

How has it helped my organization?

They are extremely reliable. They just work. The cloud tie-ins alert us if there are any issues well in advance. The auto ticket generation is really useful for us as well.

What is most valuable?

Deduplication is a big one for us as it reduces our data costs. 

Their service has been really, really phenomenal. We've had drive failures. We had a whole system failure at one point, and within 24 hours they had us back online. 

The ability to duplicate data between systems has been really handy. We've got two data centers, and they handle the cloning of data between sites as well.

It provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem. They call it One View. For us, it's more about active monitoring of our on-prem solution and letting us know if there are issues with communication to our VMware environment, hardware issues, drive degradation, and that kind of stuff. That has been how we've utilized it. 

It's been pretty good at predicting problems. Besides the controller failure, everything else we knew was coming before it was a problem.

The guarantee of data available to our organization is important. We're a manufacturing company. If our systems go down, we lose dollars every minute that system's offline. That's why having high availability has been very important for us. 

Alletra helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. We don't really have to manage it very much other than increasing the size of the data storage. We don't really have to manage the system at all. It's very hands-off. We really don't have to do much to manage storage. We may just have to increase the drive size, and we're done. It doesn't really change our workflow a whole lot.

We have improved storage performance. We were using spinning disks in the individual servers prior to Alletra. 

If we have a storage ticket, we usually get someone on the phone within fifteen minutes when we call in and we're able to get a solution going and have parts we need for replacement within two or three hours.

What needs improvement?

The solution could use more monitoring of their split-brain system controllers. That was the failure we had. One of our controllers failed, and it led to an error in the split-brain module.

If we could have had the failure we had to be handled in real-time and not have to be offline and have parts ordered, it would have been ideal.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for five and a half years now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is really stable. We've only had only one issue in five years, aside from intermittent drive failures. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. We've added drawers to increase storage space, and they scale well beyond our needs. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is very good. We have four-hour support, and 99% of our issues are resolved within that timeframe. It's been rock-solid. When we've called in for advanced issues, within ten minutes, they are kicking us up the line to get to the person we need. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We did not use a different solution.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment is pretty simple. We haven't had issues with the configuration side. It just works. 

What about the implementation team?

We used a reseller for our deployment. Our experience with them was excellent. 

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

The pricing and licensing are pretty clear-cut. We have a vendor that we work with that gives us a plain layout. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Pure Storage. Pricing may have been a deciding factor when compared to Alletra. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement. 

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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Fernando Hortal - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO & Presales Manager at Pleiades Tecnologia
Real User
Top 5
Provides storage efficiency, simplified management, and good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "It is simple to manage and integrate with our virtualization platform. There is also the storage efficiency."
  • "I do not have any requirements. They can maybe have more flexibility for configurations or things like that."

What is our primary use case?

We have a virtualization platform running over there.

How has it helped my organization?

It is very easy to manage, so we spend less time going over it. It does not require very specific and advanced storage knowledge to get involved. It is easy to start using it. Creating VMs or new data storage clusters is very simple from the virtualization platform, so we save time. Also, thanks to the protection and snapshot, we can also quickly recover from ransomware attacks or things like that.

HPE Alletra Storage provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. I can monitor and manage whatever I need at home. It helps a lot. I do not need to open a VPN connection or any kind of connection to know what is going on. I can manage my platform remotely.

We have protection and snapshots. InfoSight alerts us on any issues that could be there. We get to know what is going on.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. Instead of a couple of hours, we can do storage provisions in 15 minutes.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs. We have much more than what we need.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. The InfoSight information that we have and the performance-related capabilities that we have seen help us a lot. When we know a problem, we also know where the issue is and what is causing the issue, so an open case takes a couple of hours rather than a couple of days.

What is most valuable?

It is simple to manage and integrate with our virtualization platform. There is also the storage efficiency. We are saving in terms of storage capacity. It is very easy, and we get the performance for the requirements that we are having. 

What needs improvement?

We are using it as much as we need. I do not have any requirements. They can maybe have more flexibility for configurations or things like that.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using HPE Alletra Storage for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We never have any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We do not need to scale. We would have had to scale if we could buy a smaller one. It is enough for us.

How are customer service and support?

Everything is great. Sometimes we get an email saying that we are having an issue on a drive or something else even before we realize it. Nowadays, when we are having an issue, most of the time, we also have a solution. It is great. 

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

We have used 3PAR from HPE or MSA. We needed to perform a refresh. Most of our use cases were VMware-related, we wanted to integrate data management capacities and capabilities. That is why we moved. We received everything that we needed.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. We have started to take away the old storage solution. We have simplified management. For anyone new to the company, it is very easy to understand what is going on, how to manage, how to get access and know what it is doing. The onboarding time is saved. We require less training and there are also fewer errors because they understand what they are doing. It is a simple management environment.

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

Its licensing is good. Pricing-wise, there can be a little bit more flexibility. It would help to have different sizes. However, it fits into the budget that we have, so we are happy.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a nine out of ten because there is always room to improve, but we are happy with what we are receiving from Alletra and how simple it is to manage. The optimization of the storage means that we do not need to scale and grow. We are not looking for new refreshments or upgrades on the platform. All my colleagues are also confident about what they are doing over there. We like the environment.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Principal Systems Engineer & Global Team Leader, Financials at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
MSP
Small footprint, good capacity, and good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The extended capacity offers a small footprint that's still meeting a large customer demand."
  • "I'd like to see larger cluster sizes beyond four nodes."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for infrastructure for one of our global financial customers to allow them to scale up and out.

What is most valuable?

The distributed hyper-converged infrastructure is great. Just having the ability to scale independently storage compute is useful. 

The extended capacity offers a small footprint that's still meeting a large customer demand. 

The cloud-like model will be helpful. I can see it will make things much more efficient once we get to that point.

For predicting and preventing problems, it looks like it will be a very useful feature. It will simplify operations and Day Zero and Day One operations.

Its guarantee of data availability is important. It will be one of the key aspects for the customer. 

It will help save time around storage provisioning once implemented fully.

The simplified provisioning of storage compared to other solutions in and of itself will make it more efficient.

Customers have an existing solution they can compare the performance of IOPs to. This product looks to be as good or even better. However, that's yet to be determined. 

Alletra should effectively reduce the time dealing with support tickets once it is fully implemented. It likely will improve by a factor of two to three, although we aren't at that point yet.

What needs improvement?

From what I've seen so far it's definitely checking the boxes of what the customer's looking for.

I'd like to see larger cluster sizes beyond four nodes. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for four months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It seems to be robust, and since it's based on the Nimbe product line, it will be mature. that stability will be fine. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Going up to four nodes is not as scalable as I'd like for horizontal scaling. Vertical scaling is huge. That said, the ability to go beyond four nodes would be of interest to customers in the future.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't dealt with technical support yet. However, I'm sure it will be fine. I've seen a lot of focus on support. HPE will definitely bring its A-game. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We use Dell. They are looking at the smaller footprint and simplicity as far as managing the product which is why Allertra is so attractive. 

How was the initial setup?

We haven't deployed the solution yet. That said, just talking to the HPE deployment team and watching the demo, the process seems like it will be very simple. We'll be able to do it in hours instead of days or weeks. 

What about the implementation team?

I'm an integrator. I'll help my clients handle the implementation. 

What was our ROI?

With a smaller footprint, there will be less power consumption. There will be more effective capacity as well, and less rack space used. 

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

I've heard the licensing is going to be much, much more streamlined than what they're used to currently. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The customer is also looking at Hitachi, although it's more complex. Plus, the customer already has a significant HPE footprint. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. From an effective capacity, power, and footprint standpoint, it edges out the incumbent.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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Senior admin at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Good performance, increased uptime, and fast support
Pros and Cons
  • "We now have much more storage and the uptime is very good."
  • "I'd like the solution to offer more free training."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for our data center compute. We have three HP ProLiant servers that use it for storage and 40 virtual servers. 

How has it helped my organization?

We now have much more storage and the uptime is very good.

What is most valuable?

The performance is very good. We expanded our storage four-fold over the previous product and managed it within a reasonable price range. 

It's increased performance and uptime. 

Uptime, to us, is very important.

It's helped us reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. There's less management that's necessary overall.

We have lessened the number of storage-related tickets. We don't really have any since we implemented Alletra.

What needs improvement?

They could be a little more intuitive and user-friendly in terms of management, and it could be easier to find technical documentation. 

I'd like the solution to offer more free training.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've had no issues with stability. It's very good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm not sure if we'll need to scale. I'm not an expert on scaling; however, we do have the ability to upgrade our system should there be a need. 

How are customer service and support?

Support is good. I had to get a password reset and they were very quick about it. It's better than general HP support. I've had a bad support experience, for example, with Aruba. There were language barriers, and I needed to redo tasks. Alletra's support, however, is very good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used to use Pure Storage. I didn't have to spend too much time managing storage availability. However, I did have to manage it more. With Alletra, I barely have to manage it at all. We switched to Alletra based on cost. The cost to replace Pure Storage would have been similarly-priced to the Alletra 6000-series. It made sense to go with a newer, better product if the price was the same. 

How was the initial setup?

It was very easy, especially with the help of a third-party party. They did most of the setup and some on-site training, which was helpful. We had everything set up with minimal to no downtime. 

What about the implementation team?

We had a third party help set it up. The experience was good. The main problem we had was getting a long time to get the product after purchase based on post-COVID supply chain issues. 

What was our ROI?

We have witnessed an ROI. It's a cost we have to have regardless of our data center. However, we have additional ROI since we could reuse our Pure Storage as a sandbox/DR solution. 

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

The pricing is decent. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. The only improvements would have been more on training and getting more out of my existing system.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Multicloid architect at Intility
MSP
Competitive pricing, works well with VMware, and offers very good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The GUI for onboarding is straightforward."
  • "For the 6000, we'd like to see active-active controllers."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for VMware virtualization. 

How has it helped my organization?

It offers more performance and better value for money than Nimble Gen 5 arrays. It's very stable.  

What is most valuable?

The VMware integration is very good. Not all arrays have such a good integration.

The GUI for onboarding is straightforward.

We chose the 6000 with local GUI over the 9000.
As for the 9000 you need to use DSCC to manage the arrays.

The solution does provide a cloud-like operational model on-prem. We haven't used it so much since we have built own on-prem tools and do not really need management software in the cloud. We prefer our own data centers for data and management sovereignty. That way, if there's a major incident where we have to cut off the Internet connection. Then it's a bad thing to have the management software in the cloud.

It's good for predicting and preventing problems before there are major issues. We like that HPE can collect the data and we get information to see if something is prone to errors. That way, we don't have to be the first ones to experience errors. We get a heads-up.

The DSCC solution helps reduce time spent on storage provisioning. However, VMware has also improved on with VMware vVols, and so the impact is minimal for us.

Alletra has helped with improving the storage performance. It offers good storage performance overall. 

What needs improvement?

For the 6000, we'd like to see active-active controllers. For the 9000, Alletra has it. Yet it doesn't offer the superior agile functionality of the 6000.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using the solution when they first came out in 2021. I used to use Nimble before that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It could scale a bit better regards to VMware vVols.

How are customer service and support?

They offer really good support. One of the reasons we went with 6000 was due to the fact that they kept Nimble support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We previously used Nimble Gen5. With this solution we got better performance for value. 

How was the initial setup?

Setup was easy and straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it ourselves.

What was our ROI?

We have witnessed an ROI, although I do not have concrete metrics.

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

The pricing is competitive. Compared to Pure Systems, it's less expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Alletra.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It offers good performance and support.

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: September 2024
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