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Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees
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It's a single data management architecture that allows data to move between on-premise datacenters, cloud service providers, and hyperscale cloud providers.

The Register wrote a damning piece about NetApp a few days ago. I felt it was irresponsible because this is akin to kicking a man when he’s down. It is easy to do that. The writer is clearly missing the forest for the trees. He was targeting NetApp’s Clustered Data ONTAP (cDOT) and missing the entire philosophy of NetApp’s mission and vision in Data Fabric.

I have always been a strong believer that you must treat Data like water. Just like what Jeff Goldblum famously quoted in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way“, data as it moves through its lifecycle, will find its way into the cloud and back.

And every storage vendor today has a cloud story to tell. It is exciting to listen to everyone sharing their cloud story. Cloud makes sense when it addresses different workloads such as the sharing of folders across multiple devices, backup and archiving data to the cloud, tiering to the cloud, and the different cloud service models of IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and XaaS.

But if we take a look at all these cloud offerings and also computing platforms in our own server room or in the data center, the on-premise infrastructure, the data landscape is NOT coherent. The data flow is not in harmony, and it is not congruent. If we imagine data as water, there is hindrance of data movement as it moves from one stage to another in the data lifecycle. This applies to almost every storage, system or cloud vendor today.

Even worse, organizations lose the control of the data along the way. When data moves out of an on-premise data center to the cloud, IT is almost passing off a large amount of control of their data to the cloud service provider.

Remember the Nirvanix story about 2 years ago? When Nirvanix went belly up, customers of theirs went to a panic mode. They were asked to remove their data within 2 weeks! One customer of Nirvanix had 20PB stored in the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network. How the F do you think that customer would have felt in that whole Nirvanix fiasco?

This is exactly what I mean about losing control of data.

As Cloud Computing gains a much deeper foothold into IT, the data landscape does not change. The data lifecycle does not change. Data still moves from an active stage to a passive stage, and perhaps back to the active stage when needed. Along with the data movement though its lifecycle, the value of the data changes as well.

That is what the NetApp Data Fabric can do for data in any organizations. A single data management architecture that is able to have data transcend from on-premise data platforms on NetApp (or 3rd party platforms using NetApp FlexArray) to the data platforms on hybrid clouds in cloud service providers and on to the data platforms of hyperscalers, and back. All these data movement is secure, and more importantly, allows organizations to maintain control of their data, wherever it may be residing.

I have put my views of NetApp Data Fabric in the picture below (pardon my Powerpoint skills).

The underpinnings and foundation of the Data Fabric is NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP. And with the latest release of cDOT 8.3.1, the technology has reached an important milestone to realize the single data landscape architecture.

Furthermore, I cannot recall at this moment of any storage vendor or cloud service provider adopting a philosophy like Data Fabric, which means that their customers would likely encounter hindrance of data as it moves through different premises or clouds. Just like water trapped in a watering hole, eventually it will dry up or become useless.

I am not trying deride the writer of the article, but instead of sensationalizing the NetApp story, perhaps it would be better to have a deeper understanding of where NetApp is now and where they are going. From the outside, they looked to be going through a rough patch right now, but as an ex-employee, NetApp has always been my little engine that could.

The intend of my response in this blog is really to help everyone open up their eyes because it is all about a single and secure data architecture. Clustered Data ONTAP happens to be the technology that makes this happens.

Remember … Data will find its way. There is no stopping that.

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

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    it_user1013601 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior System Engineer at ICTeam
    Real User
    It offers reliability, multi-tenancy and network segmentation

    What is our primary use case?

    VMware multi-tenant and SnapMirror destination, multi customers' filesystem too, no problem with multi AD and domain

    How has it helped my organization?

    • IOPS
    • Reliability
    • Multi-tenancy
    • Network segmentation
    • easy to maintain and configure starting from a correct initial setup. focus on network conf in particular

    What is most valuable?

    Reliability. flexibility and multi tenant. we host 20 client virtual dc on our a200.

    I scaled out our previous 2 node cdot cluster on the fly by adding cluster's switches and then the 2 node a200, after that data migration between fas 2554 and a200 was made non disruptively and on business time.

    What needs improvement?

    The full bundle is too expensive. It's needed to implement native replicas (i.e. snapmirror) and backup (i.e. snapvault) features

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Three to five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    our system is very stable and reliable, of course it needs to be maintained and monitored, even in case of network switch failure a200 keeps to serve data, very important is the initial setup, so you have to focus on the final architecture.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    very good

    How are customer service and technical support?

    tech support is very responsive and effective to find solution to some issues, most of the issues can be resolved reading KBs

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

    fas 2554, need to scle out with space and performances

    How was the initial setup?

    initial setup maust be done by cli, storage space privisioning made by gui, good interaction with vmware with vsc 

    What about the implementation team?

    I'm the vendor team and storage administrator

    What was our ROI?

    I need to ask for it to my ceo

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

    full bundle too expensive I.e. full licenses to implement native replicas and backups

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    starting from a fas 2554 it was the best solution

    What other advice do I have?

    good deduplication and compression ratio

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: solution provider, datacenter

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      Buyer's Guide
      NetApp AFF
      December 2024
      Learn what your peers think about NetApp AFF. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
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      it_user527193 - PeerSpot reviewer
      R&D Executive Supervisor at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
      Vendor
      It supports VMware and enables bringing up and shutting down the system without problems.

      What is most valuable?

      It is very user friendly. Someone in my position needs to be able to bring up and shut down the system quickly, efficiently, and shut it down if there's a power outage quickly and efficiently without having trouble. It also supports VMware, which is what we use; but we use the NetApp as our only filer.

      How has it helped my organization?

      I am trying to understand it more, so I can employ it better during high tense situations.

      I have been able to manage the system easily myself since we got NetApp four years ago.

      What needs improvement?

      The Ilom's graceful shutdown feature is no longer there in the version that I have. I believe I'm using 7.0.x, using the FAS 2040 and also the FAS 2020. I don't know where to say it needs improvement because I'm just not that versed in it yet.

      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

      It is excellent in terms of stability. I've had no issues during the last six years that I've had NetApp. Just recently, on one system that's been out and had a lot of controversy about, we had a filer fail on us. We were able to get a filer the following day. It was excellent.

      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

      For what we do, I can have up to close to 120,000 separate widgets running simultaneously and delivering data to other systems; and everything works, no problem. I am currently trying to find out where we’re moving ahead from here.

      How is customer service and technical support?

      Technical support is excellent.

      How was the initial setup?

      I was involved in building it. I found it a little bit grueling to get my certification to build it, but I really can't speak to the NetApp filer documentation. The documentation that we use for it is different from what NetApp uses.

      Which other solutions did I evaluate?

      I didn't evaluate anything. That is done in the organization at higher levels than I am. I know that NetApp won the contract again, so they must be doing something right because we’re not going to give a contract to anybody for a bad product. Right now, I'm concentrating on our collapse-down strategy in which we're taking multiple systems and putting them all on one system. That's why I'm here. I'm curious to see how it's going to impact the filer: whether the filer is going to need to expand; whether we're going to be migrating to a new filer; and so on.

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

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        it_user527292 - PeerSpot reviewer
        Computer Systems Engineer at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
        Vendor
        The performance is probably the most valuable feature.

        How has it helped my organization?

        From a relations perspective, it makes us look better that we have the best foundation to run things that we can. It also provides cost savings because it has efficiencies we can gain with it.

        Learn about the benefits of NVMe, NVME-oF and SCM. Read New Frontiers in Solid-State Storage.

        What is most valuable?

        The performance is probably the most valuable feature. It allows us to meet our customer's needs, being able to provide that level of performance that they need for their workloads.

        What needs improvement?

        There's always going to be room for improvement. I don't really have anything sticking out that's a major pain point or something that it's not doing that I need it to do.

        Anything that I might like to have seems to be happening already, whether it’s the price coming down, tracking performance, or higher capacities; that work is already getting done or it already has been done.

        We're interested or excited in getting to 32-Gb fiber channel. With their new models, NetApp will be moving to 32-Gb fiber. That would potentially raise performance and or lower our port counts, simplifying or minimizing the amount of cables we need to put in places. It would be a nicety, to be able to clean things up and simplify. It’s something I’m looking forward to.

        What do I think about the stability of the solution?

        It seems to be rock solid. We've not had any issues with it at all.

        Learn about the benefits of NVMe, NVME-oF and SCM. Read New Frontiers in Solid-State Storage.

        What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

        Since we've added the All Flash FAS, we have scaled up. We've added additional disk shelves; it seems to be growing just fine with us.

        How are customer service and technical support?

        I don't think we've had to open up any cases, or needed any kind of tech support on it, other than working with our VAR setting it up.

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

        I've contributed opinions regarding the decision to invest in the All Flash FAS.
        We've been NetApp customers for quite a while, so we just kind of grew into it, from disk to flash cache, flash pool and then to all flash.

        How was the initial setup?

        I was involved in the initial set up. It was very straightforward. Working with our partner, they tend to do a lot of the work on our behalf but it's still a pretty straightforward process. That were really no gotchas.

        Which other solutions did I evaluate?

        Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

        What other advice do I have?

        The solution is great; the company is fantastic to work with. I cannot think of a bad experience that we've had with either the company and or the product itself. We've had issues but nothing that wasn't overcome and worked through and better in the long run for working through it with a good company like NetApp.

        We're very pleased with it but then I guess we don't have a lot of experience with other things to maybe compare.

        The most important criteria for me when selecting a vendor to work with is the support. Everybody's going to have issues with something, but being able to resolve or remediate any issues as quickly, seamlessly and as open as possible is very important to us.

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

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          it_user527106 - PeerSpot reviewer
          Systems Architect at Equifax
          Real User
          Pricing is competitive, you can get it up and running quickly, and it's easy to use.

          What is most valuable?

          The most valuable features are cost, performance and usability. NetApp’s really good with usability; to get it up and running quickly and usable.

          How has it helped my organization?

          We've been using for our internal cloud environments, for internal cloud storage. Response time's very fast. Capacity's very good. Performance is very good; it's quick.

          What needs improvement?

          We've only had it in production for about three months, so we don't have a lot of time with it. For what we're using it for, it's been fine. I don't know of any issues or anything that we need to do, that I would request additional features right now, aside from the scalability improvements I’ve mentioned.

          I know we use external monitoring. There's some level of monitoring on the systems themselves, but we do use a lot of external monitoring, whether it's NetApp versus third party. I know with ONTAP 9, they're working on more monitoring capabilities and more features within the unit, but they don't have that yet. I would like to see more monitoring onboard, on the system, instead of having to throw another third-party system at it.

          What do I think about the stability of the solution?

          I've been a NetApp customer for quite a while, at least 12 to 13 years. Stability's never been an issue for any of our systems that I've been associated with; it's been very good. We haven't had any issues with those units, knock on wood, so far; it's been good.

          What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

          Scalability has been OK. We've been scaling them vertically instead of more horizontally because you can only scale the FAS horizontally so far, so we've scaled out vertically.

          I would like to see them improve its ability to scale vertically. With flash, you can only drive so many IOPS, the controllers can only handle so many IOPS. There's a limit; there's physics, a mathematical limit that they can do.

          How are customer service and technical support?

          It's been a long time since I've actually called technical support with a case. I try not to call tech support. At my level, I usually need something like a third-level support. You call in, you have to say what your issue is, they can't help you and then they have to pass it to the next person and then usually it's third level. Usually, it's a third-level, advanced person that I would need to speak to.

          They've been fine. Once you get to that level, someone that's knowledgeable, support's fine.

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

          In this environment, we were using spinning disks. When we needed to expand capacity, that's when we decided to go with all flash, and NetApp made it very price competitive. They were trying to push those units, so it was worthwhile to get flash instead of more spinning disks.

          How was the initial setup?

          NetApp's initial setup is very straightforward. It's very easy to get up and running within a day, as long as you have the cabling in place and the power, but that's outside of NetApp's control. Once you have that infrastructure in place and they come on site, it's very easy to get up and running within a day.

          Which other solutions did I evaluate?

          Before choosing the All Flash FAS, I also considered Hitachi. We chose NetApp because NetApp is in our internal cloud, and that's what we were expanding. We didn't see the need to switch vendors at that point. NetApp's easier than Hitachi HNAS to get up and running.

          For my manager, price is the most important criteria when selecting a vendor to work with. NetApp's been very competitive with pricing over the last 2-3 years.

          NetApp's features are easier, and the capabilities are a lot more advanced than Hitachi and other vendors that we look at. The software's much more mature than the other vendors. That's why I like NetApp. It's easy to use. It's easy to get down to what you want to do with it; the features and capabilities are there.

          What other advice do I have?

          Everybody pretty much can do the same. The issue is how complicated it is to get to what you're really trying to do. That's the one thing that I've seen. NetApp does a good job. They're much more mature, as I’ve mentioned. It's easy to drill down to get to the data, get it set up and get it configured, and it works.

          We've only been using it three months. We haven't hit any issues with it yet; I can't say that we won't, but I'm not expecting to.

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

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            it_user527403 - PeerSpot reviewer
            Systems Engineer at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
            Vendor
            Provides the ability to quickly recover your data, which it makes available and accessible.

            Valuable Features

            The ability to recover your data really fast is valuable, as is the availability and accessibility of the data.

            Improvements to My Organization

            It helped us a lot with our storage infrastructure because we were using another vendor, XtremIO. prior to this and things were really slow. We used to have to fight fires every day because users were not able to access their files or the files were not responding the way they should.

            Room for Improvement

            I see room for improvement everywhere because the technology is here. We are using it and every day we are trying to improve. That's the reason why I haven’t rated it higher.

            Specifically, the current pricing bothers me; pricing is very high. It's expensive. That's the reason why I can't just provide a review and hope that people would jump onto it; pricing is usually a driving factor for a lot of companies. It’s a major issue, even though my company had the money and they spent it. Nonetheless, we had to prove that it was the solution we were looking for. A lot of other companies would not be able to afford this type of solution, so they would have to look for alternatives. Those alternatives would be other companies, start-up companies that are pretty much doing the same thing. Sometimes they are better than the ones that were the innovators.

            Stability Issues

            It's been really stable as long as you have it configured correctly.

            Scalability Issues

            As with stability, it's been really scalable as long as you have it configured correctly.

            Customer Service and Technical Support

            Technical support is very good. I like the call home feature, where we don't even have to do anything. Most of the time, we don't know that anything’s broken and we receive an email saying, "Hey, go fix it." So, it's good.

            Other Solutions Considered

            We didn't really evaluate any other companies. This was the one everybody else was using. All of the reviews actually helped somebody make the decision. This solution had proved to be working; it was proven to be working at the time. We're very happy with it but we find it expensive.

            Other Advice

            Do your research. Find what would work for you. Find what's affordable to you. Most of the time, we purchase stuff without thinking about the maintenance. Maintenance is usually a killer when it comes to all these things because once you own it, you think you are done with spending money but maintenance becomes a very big issue for a lot of companies. After a while, they drop the support and everything. At that point, there's a new version that's out there and you can't use it, so that's when you have to dump all the money you just put in and start with something new. Study your environment. Make sure you are getting what you want. What you need.

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

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              it_user346356 - PeerSpot reviewer
              CTO at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
              Consultant
              It has SnapManager, something Pure Storage lacks, allowing us to copy production DBs.

              Valuable Features

              The speed is really the most important feature for us. The SnapManager feature is also very important.

              Improvements to My Organization

              It will reduced query time because we have a lot of them that take a long time to execute. We created the database because we need to know which product I have available in the warehouse, and this is most important thing for me. Because we have the flash array, the queries to find this out will be much faster.

              Room for Improvement

              The product is great for us now.

              Use of Solution

              We bought it recently and use it for BI and partially for SAP. We are planning on implementing ONTAP.

              Scalability Issues

              It will scale to our needs.

              Customer Service and Technical Support

              Customer Service:

              It's very high.

              Technical Support:

              It's been perfect so far.

              Other Solutions Considered

              I looked at Pure Storage and we decided to get NetApp because they have SnapManager, which Pure Storage doesn't. I need to create a copy of the production DB and without SnapManager, I cannot do this.

              Other Advice

              Buy it if you need the speed and SnapManager.

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

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                it_user332643 - PeerSpot reviewer
                Enterprise Data Storage Engineer III at University of Kentucky
                Vendor
                If I need sub-millisecond 300,000 IOPS, Flash FAS will provide that for us. And although initial setup seems very complicated, it becomes intuitive afterwards.

                Valuable Features

                Hands down, the most valuable feature is the speed of flash.

                Improvements to My Organization

                With anything that’s flash, it comes down to speed. If I need sub-millisecond 300,000 IOPS, for example, Flash FAS will provide that for us.

                Room for Improvement

                I've not been using it long enough to know.

                Deployment Issues

                None.

                Stability Issues

                We’re just starting out, so hard to say. So far, so good.

                Scalability Issues

                So far, it looks like it's going to be incredibly scalable as I just install additional nodes as needed.

                Customer Service and Technical Support

                It's fantastic. NetApp is awesome.

                Initial Setup

                Once you’ve done one, it seems very intuitive. However, the first time seems very complicated.

                Other Advice

                Buy as much as you can afford.

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

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                  Buyer's Guide
                  Download our free NetApp AFF Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
                  Updated: December 2024
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