HPE Alletra Storage Reviews

We primarily use the solution for VMware virtualization. 

It [HPE Alletra Storage] offers more performance and better value for money than Nimble Gen 5 arrays. It's very stable.  

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. 

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.

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

The stability is great.

It could scale a bit better regards to VMware vVols.

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

Positive

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

Setup was easy and straightforward.

We implemented it ourselves.

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

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

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Alletra.

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

Alletra is the primary storage for our entire company.

It's bulletproof, and it's the right price point.

The reliability and cost are excellent. 

It provides a cloud-like operation model for data management on-premises. That said, we haven't taken advantage of this.

The solution is good for predicting and preventing problems before they start.

The 100% data availability guarantee was important when choosing a solution. We're stewards of our client's data in the financial services industry, and customers would not think of us very highly.

The solution has helped us to reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. We previously used Nimble, and we don't have data on how much difference there is. I don't have data yet.

Alletra has helped us improve our storage performance.

I don't have any specific areas for improvement.

It's already being tied into GreenLake. However, my understanding is that the dashboards are now going to be a charge. That's concerning. 

We purchased our first Alletra this year. 

The stability of Alletra is very good. It's very stable. 

The scalability is very good. It was one of the reasons we chose it, as we are interested in expanding our environment. 

From what I have heard, the technical support is pretty good. They are good at getting back to my storage team. They've had a positive experience. 

Positive

We previously used Nimble Storage. We are replacing our Nimble with Alletra. This is the latest generation so it's a bit of an upgrade.

The deployment process was easy. We didn't have any problems. My storage administrator was able to set it up.

We did not use any outside assistance. We managed the setup ourselves. 

The ROI is that the solution is pretty much bulletproof. 

We haven't had any issues with pricing and licensing. 

We had been a Dell storage shop previously and we did evaluate those options. We chose Alletra based on cost and reliability.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

The tool's notable feature is that we don't need to log a case directly with the vendor. The tool has access to all the logs on-premises. This is an on-premises solution. Additionally, we can provision data as thick or thin provisioned. Moreover, it includes data grid duplication and compression features.

We allocate volumes to various clients based on their requirements and requests. This has resolved the problem of bottlenecks for applications requiring a high number of I/O operations, as the storage was previously unable to deliver the necessary throughput due to SAS, NL-SAS, and SATA drives. However, with NVMe drives, a single drive can provide up to thirty thousand IOPS. We can configure rate levels and disk drives according to the client's needs, ensuring no bottlenecks in IOPS.

The cloud-integrated feature allows users to HPE Alletra access from any location, eliminating the need for VPN connections or on-premises access.
It offers high-intensity IOPS for data operations and delivers extremely low latency for disk operations, often within sub-millisecond response times. This ensures minimal latency experienced by databases or applications, resulting in significantly faster read and write operations than other solutions. This is particularly beneficial for scenarios with many users accessing applications simultaneously. For instance, for many users checking results concurrently, the tool ensures optimal performance without latency or slowdown in the application portal.

The cloud-native connectivity feature allows you to deploy your private cloud infrastructure. However, it's important to note that integration with public cloud services is unsupported due to its hybrid channel-based solution, primarily designed for on-premises deployment. It will not give you any bottlenecks and offers the best performance on storage. 

It would be better if there were an option to incorporate the NVMe feature alongside other storage tiers. Currently, the system operates on Autotier but can manually peer and mix different types of drives, such as SAS and SATA drives. 

I have been using the product for 12 years. 

The tool's stability is excellent, providing a hundred percent uptime.

The product is scalable. Approximately 10-15 major customers are utilizing the product, with almost 400 plus servers.

The product's support is good. It is better than Dell EMC. 

The tool is very easy to deploy. It's like a plug-and-play system. You need to plug it in, and it's ready to go. There's no need for extensive configuration or setup. When the engineers from the HPE vendors arrive, they connect the HPE Alletra system, which requires Internet connectivity. After that, the person who registers will receive a signing code. This code must be input during the installation process, along with configuring the management IP.

The solution is expensive and can cost around five lakhs. 

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.I advise those considering implementing HPE Alletra to thoroughly evaluate your requirements and workload. It is a top choice in the market if you primarily need block-level database storage. However, it's worth considering other options if you have a mix of workloads and require unified storage.

We primarily use the solution as a data center SAN.

It's been providing us with insanely fast storage. That's pretty important for a data center.

We have access to InfoSight. It provides immediate insight into what's going on in the array's incredible software.

It's good for predicting and preventing problems. It's pretty impressive that we end up getting proactive ticketing on some issues that occur right there on the array. That aspect is pretty great.

Alletra has helped our storage performance in terms of IOPs. We shifted from a hybrid to an NVMe. It's much, much faster.

It would be great if it cost less. 

They shouldn't strip out anything from InfoSight. That is really helpful software to see how the storage arrays are performing and has helped us do a lot of troubleshooting. They should keep up the good work on the hardware side since it's great. However, the InfoSight software is really invaluable.

We invested in Nimble originally and then transitioned to Alletra, so we've maybe used both for five years in total.

The solution has been rock-solid. 

The scalability is very good. 

Technical support has been very helpful. 

We previously used the Nimble array. Before that, we had a component array. I wasn't there for the original conversation about switching six or seven years ago. 

We've witnessed an ROI. The difference of what we run internally vs the cloud is night and day difference in terms of cost.

The one-time buy-in is ideal for us. It makes a data center more compelling than a cloud, as the costs are known. A lot of businesses have been shifting to a service model. While I get the appeal from the finance side, that will only expedite a team's move to cloud services. If I'm paying monthly for something that's on-prem and I'm paying monthly for something that's in the cloud, I'll just shift my infrastructure needs to the cloud. Yet the costs will change. However, the predictability of having that one-time cost is everything for the data center.

I'd rate Alletra ten out of ten. If we ended up not thinking it was best in class, we would have moved away from it. 

My experience with it has been good. I primarily use it as a storage backend for my applications. I like it for that purpose.

It's been important for automating some of our workloads. For example, we had some heavy processes that would sometimes crash. Alletra has made managing those easier. 

I like that it's simple to manage. It offers rich features and high speed for transferring data. 

We had some issues while installing it on our servers. It required more resources while cross-checking. So, the initial setup process could be better. Sometimes, it has trouble discovering other servers; it would be nice if there were a way to streamline the connection process.

I have been using it for a year. I use it in my company.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It is a stable product. 

This product offers good scalability. I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. 

The support team is great. But the response time could be faster. 

Neutral

We had some issues while configuring it.  It takes a while to get that working correctly. It would be helpful to have clearer instructions or a configuration wizard for that part.

We have it configured as a cloud solution.  

There is a license. HPE Alletra uses a cloud-based model. This means I'm focused on procuring on-demand resources for customers. As such, for future use, we bill based on device consumption rather than the traditional datacenter model.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend using the solution. First, this solution can be tailored for specific business needs. Secondly, it excels as a standard server for data management.

Our main use case is virtualization. We have integrated it. We have iSCSI in our VMware environment, and we also tried OpenNebula. It is KVM-based. That is the main use case for us.

It helps the organization to deploy storage LUNs faster and with less effort.

Data availability is very important for us. We do not want to lose any data. The data has to be present nearly 100%. Since we have been using Alletra and Nimble storage, we never had an error.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. Before this, providing storage LUNs took 20 to 30 minutes, whereas now, it takes less than 5 minutes.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPS.

Since we have had HPE Alletra Storage, there have been only two tickets. It is the same with Nimble. In eight years, there was only one hard disk error. With storage from other companies, we had more tickets, so it was a good decision to go for HPE Alletra Storage.

The most valuable feature is the integration with vCenter with the HPE multi-storage plugin. That makes it more comfortable to use the storage with just a few clicks. Previously, we had to configure it in vCenter or we had to configure it on Nimble or other storage like MSA. This is the most comfortable feature for us.

One problem we had during the installation of HPE Alletra Storage was the connection to the cloud. Our company does not like cloud connections for storage, but it was necessary. It would be a good thing to start without the GreenLake cloud.

We have been using HPE Alletra Storage for about one year. Previously, we were using Nimble CS3000 and Nimble HF40.

It is very stable.

It is good. We can expand it using shelves.

It is very good. If you open a ticket, you get a response soon. We had a problem during installation, and they were very fast.

Positive

We were using Nimble CS3000 and Nimble HF40. About eight or nine years ago, we were using Open-E. It is an open storage solution. You can install it on ProLiant, but Alletra is much better.

For us, its price is good.

We did not evaluate other solutions. 

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a ten out of ten because it is a very stable solution, and we can use it very well in our environment. Integration is very good. It is very fast.

Right now, we're using DHCI cloud infrastructure. It's primarily going to be the backbone for our ESX environment between stretched between two data centers.

It's been a cost-reduction and space-reduction asset for us. It uses less storage rack space and therefore, less power. It has less physical connectivity. So far, it's working fine.

The replication between the two sites, the presentation to the ESX environment, and the plugin that allows us to go directly into ESX and not have to manage the storage itself directly are all valuable aspects. It's easy for anybody to use. With 3PAR or any of the others, you have to go into the storage directly.

Right now, it's offered both cost reduction and space reduction. It uses less Storage rack space. Therefore, less power. Less physical connectivity. And so far, it's working fine.

The solution does offer a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. However, I don't use it that way.

It's helped with predicting and preventing problems before they occur. So far, that's been working well.

The plug-in with vCenter and integration into vCenter is spotty at best. The last three upgrades that we've had have been absolute nightmares. That said, we found if we did an upgrade outside of the DHCI infrastructure that it is part of and just did the Alletra upgrade itself, it's better.

For me, the solution has not helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. I've had more tickets open for this than any other system I've ever had.

I've been using the solution since November 2023.

The storage itself has been stable. It's just working. 

The scalability looks pretty good. It's all connected through switches and ICSCI. 

The support guys are on-point. They are next-level. You can talk to them like somebody you've known for years. You don't talk to them tech to tech. It's like talking to a normal human being. 

We previously used 3PAR. The purchase of Alletra was made while I was away.

The deployment has been a challenge. I've had more open tickets with this solution than any other that I've done. The software coding between Nimble and HPE has been a challenge. The backend Python script wasn't as fleshed out as it should have been. 

The ROI will end up being pretty good as we did get a good deal and it is replacing two racks of storage for six years. 

The pricing so far has been pretty good. 

I was looking at Pure Storage and the upgraded version of 3PAR, Primera, and one other option.

I'd rate the solution six out of ten. I'm coming from fiber channel. I feel it's a downgrade from ICSCI. Plus, with the backend, they tried to shoehorn Nimble Storage into an HPE product. Transitioning from one company to another is where they are having a problem. However, they are getting better about it. That's where I see the main problem - the transition. 

We primarily use the solution as a hybrid cloud. 

It's easy to do a tiered storage for caching, et cetera. Clients find it easily expandable in size. They can start small and layer on. 

Clients like the insights tools within the solution that came from Nimble and were pulled in.

Once it's set up, it's easy to make changes from the cloud interface. 

You get alerts and can easily find out what's important and what's noise.

Alletra helps clients reduce time spent on storage provisioning. As a partner, we set it up for them and help design it. Some remain clients, and we continue to maintain it. Other smaller teams take it on themselves, yet they can pick it up pretty quickly.

It's easier, with the insights to figure out where you are having a problem. Before, it was hard to figure out where the bottleneck was. This provides better visibility. 

They are starting to add more blocking tools. It's lacking natively, however, they seem to be adding in more. The more they can integrate it into one dashboard, the easier it will be for the client. 

The solution is generally bulletproof with easy upgrades. 

The scalability is excellent. A nice piece of Green Lake is adding cloud scalability without having to redo anything on-prem.

We sometimes wrap our service with HPE Quickstart. They are generally good.

Positive

Some clients have used older HPE. Others have used older Dell EMC products. Many change to Alletra based on GreenLake as it offers a combined platform.

The performance of Alletra is very good. Once it's set up, it's very good.  

We've been doing smaller implementations. The initial setup itself is pretty easy once you know what you are doing. The learning curve is okay. When GreenLake first came out and we first started integrating it, it was bumpy. It's easier now. 

We help our clients deploy the product. 

Most clients gain ROI by gaining efficiency within their own teams.

I don't directly deal with pricing. The cost is not very cheap, however, people tend to see the benefit of it. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.