Most customers in the Bangladesh market want a hybrid solution that has both SAN-based and NAS-based storage. HPE Nimble Storage provides only SAN-based storage and does not support NAS-based storage.
PreSales Lead- Government & Defense at Accops Systems Pvt Ltd
Vendor
Top 5
2023-11-10T08:06:20Z
Nov 10, 2023
HPE Nimble Storage's cost is very high, making it one of its downsides. HPE Nimble Storage's cost is very high compared with any HCI solutions, like HPE's SimpliVity, Nutanix, VMware, or Dell VxRail. A person requires a special skill set to operate HPE Nimble Storage because there are hardly any solutions similar to Nimble Storage in the market. The product's support can be made faster and more responsive if HPE trains its partners in such a way that they acquire more expertise on Nimble Storage through the training sessions. HPE Nimble Storage is dependent on only VMware vSphere Hypervisor. In the future, HPE has to make Nimble Storage feasible with other hypervisors like Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix Acropolis, and RHEV, meaning it should be hypervisor agnostic.
Network Security Specialist with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
2022-12-21T15:52:11Z
Dec 21, 2022
I don't find anything that is needed in terms of improvement. They are now gradually upgrading everything and are more powerful than we have. It was a bit expensive.
Head Of Information Technology at Zambia National Building Society
Real User
2022-07-05T17:00:58Z
Jul 5, 2022
When we’re setting up the solution, making options available regarding the replication tool mechanism would be ideal. There's a Nimble storage-based replication. They need to ensure that a customer beforehand understands what they want to do. When I joined, and I'm only about a year and four months in my new role here, I found that there was a gap in understanding of the type of replication they wanted and what they got. This is why right now, we're trying to change. Instead of having storage level replication, we're going to now buy Veeam so that we can run the applications active. That's how they want it set up. They didn't understand they could do that. They need to give options. In terms of the setup, when someone is buying it, they should actually maybe ensure that they cover the admin portion. They should sit the user down to discuss and say, "If you want to deploy a solution like this, do it like that. If you want it like that, you need to buy this extra, maybe it's Veeam, and ensure you do it like this." That way, they don't just buy Nimble to set it up, and then it's not doing what it's doing. Then they'll think the solution doesn't work. Meanwhile, it's how they implemented it.
We are doing a hybrid and are moving some machines to Microsoft Azure to run in hybrid mode. We are checking the availability of extra software-defined storage so that we can configure it.
Technical Solution's Consultant for HPE Storage Devices at Karvy Innotech
Real User
2022-02-02T06:52:47Z
Feb 2, 2022
Pure Storages have some option, which allows us the ability to directly download that host inventory and volume report. We can receive everything directly generated from the storage itself. We do not need to use some other web browser or something. If HPE Nimble Storage could do the same it would be a benefit. While we're attaching the host and creating a volume. Afterward, it is a bit difficult compared to all other storage solutions. In other solutions, we can directly search for the host, but in Nimble, the drop-down is difficult.
Senior Storage Specialist, Digital Systems at Shaw Communications
Real User
2021-10-14T21:30:08Z
Oct 14, 2021
I would like to have more administrative rights, for example, root-level administrative rights to the underlying OS of the storage array. We want more access to the kind of underlying infrastructure of the storage array rather than relying on support. However, most companies are looking to have more managed solutions which is the opposite direction of what I want.
Competitors, such as Dell EMC, make use of NVMe storage. They also use the STM storage module. Primera only has a maximum of eight. In contrast, HPE Nimble Storage does not use NVMe and this makes it challenging for us to convince the customer, who is sometimes aware of this technology, to go with it. HPE does not have sufficient storage. Overall, the customers in need of the solution have sufficient network data storage. There is also SAN storage in one solution, in a single product. I have made three requests that the storage be capable of being samples in a single bundle. We have the protocol as an example when it comes to the product. Yet, if the customer needs to configure NAS storage, this necessitates the purchase of separate software. As the competitors have already launched the solution with NVMe or STM storage, we have also done so with Primera. The same holds true in respect of Dell EMC. In Indonesia we encounter customers who are knowledgeable about the storage and infrastructure and enquire about the solution as it concerns HPE storage.
HPE Technical Support Manager at Servicios GZ, C.A.
Real User
2021-04-18T10:08:11Z
Apr 18, 2021
I think the scalability of HPE Nimble Storage could be improved. In Venezuela, we have to purchase the solution for two years and cannot obtain a secondary storage platform. So from my perspective, the scalability is not as easy as that of 3PAR StoreServ or HPE Primera.
For me, Nimble has two main problems. There is no active-active controller, which means that we can only have one controller online at a time. Replacing the controller is what I see as the only major issue, although I'm not sure that HPE can do this. Nimble has a limit for objects. We have it configured for VMware, so if you have a laptop machine then you have a problem because of this limit. Also, if you have a virtual desktop with a lot of VMs, such as 2,000 to 3,000, then it's a problem because the window has a limit.
Technical Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2021-02-09T02:56:30Z
Feb 9, 2021
When I'm competing against someone, I would like Nimble to be an active-active controller. As it is now, Nimble is an active-passive controller. If the customer is looking for an active-active controller, then we can't use Nimble and have to go with Primera. Nimble gives us a lot of good things, but without the active-active controller, it's pointless.
IT Support Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
MSP
2021-01-15T23:08:45Z
Jan 15, 2021
We want to start storing data in the cloud really soon and we are looking at other options. If there is a solution that could combine Azure backup and interconnect it with storage on-premises and on the cloud, this would be great. This solution could already exist by HP, I have not done the research yet or know what the process looks like.
Owner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
2021-01-05T17:24:49Z
Jan 5, 2021
The most difficult part about Nimble was the fact that it didn't have a standard length. It had a prolonged length to standard servers, which made it slightly challenging to get it installed and we had to switch racks around.
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Reseller
2020-12-01T16:21:55Z
Dec 1, 2020
The problem is the price. It needs to be improved. I would like to see an added feature to auto-fix, or a dynamic alerting system on storage. This is very important because we would like to prevent a disk failure before it happens. If we had some sort of AI in place to alert us then we could replace the disk before it occurs. Also, we would like to receive alerts if space is over the limits. This is necessary for us.
Network & System Support Engineer at a recruiting/HR firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
2020-07-08T09:00:59Z
Jul 8, 2020
The solution requires a higher availability. The pricing of the solution isn't ideal. They should work to make it more affordable. It's very expensive. I'd like to be able to configure the solution from vCenter, which isn't possible right now. It would be great if the solution offered even more integrations and plugins.
Technical Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Reseller
2020-06-28T08:51:00Z
Jun 28, 2020
Scalability, in terms of being able to scale out, is not easy and should be improved. In the future, I would like to see the vendor upgrade the hardware.
IT Infrastructure & Systems Manager at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Real User
2019-06-25T06:39:00Z
Jun 25, 2019
I wish they would put the InfoSight page back the way it was. I got in it for the first time about two years ago, and it looked the same for about a year and a half. Then, about six months ago, it changed. There are different options now. I can still get to where I need to go, but it feels like it takes longer, where before it didn't. Also, I felt like I had a lot more options before. I have to do a lot more to digging now to get to where I need to go. I just wish they had their old page back.
As far as what future versions of the product should include, I don't have any experience with what it is lacking. It is really up to the technical guys to determine what is potentially missing from the solution.
Senior Systems Engineer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
2019-06-25T06:39:00Z
Jun 25, 2019
I would like deduplication by default on all the volumes. I still don't understand (or know why) dedupe isn't enabled for the templates out-of-the-box. We have to go in and manually enable it each and every time. It might help to have a software revision for something like this, or even a more intuitive local dashboard, not InfoSight, but Nimble's local dash. That would be great. The UI and local dash need improvement. They have changed it around a little bit between firmware upgrades. When you do that, things are out of place and not where they used to be. There is also some granular nitty-gritty analytics that we would like to get down into deeper, like when you view volumes, you have percent-free space, and the ability to sort those volumes by the percentage or sort by the amount of data: the megabytes, gigabytes, etc. That is no longer available in the new UI. I would love to see that improved, where you can sort down the list. While InfoSight is very useful, if you widen your scope of range when you're trying to look at a month of reports, the averaging that it does sort of skews things a bit. If you drill down further into a day or hour, it looks a lot better. I wish they would have a chart or GUI that didn't average as heavily, just giving you minute spikes and things that you could see on a wider view.
It would have been nice if the vendor had informed us of a known bug that occurred during the firmware upgrade because we could have prevented our only major failure. I would like to see greater integration with Microsoft's Hyper-V platform. We are one hundred percent Hyper-V and no longer have use for the expensive VMware platform.
I don't think it is officially released yet, but the main reason that we chose Nimble is because of the sync rep feature. So, I would like to see that further evolve. This feature will be essential for our setups.
IT Infrasructure at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
2019-06-25T06:38:00Z
Jun 25, 2019
I would like to have integration into cloud providers, apart from HPE. The release cycle for the firmware upgrades could be improved. They are a bit long.
Senior Network Administrator at a university with 201-500 employees
Real User
2019-06-25T06:38:00Z
Jun 25, 2019
I would like to see the network portion of the product improve, especially with some of the things which are coming out from Aruba and HPE. Both are innovating more of an automated networking. I would like to see our Nimble meld into that and do some automated networking.
The product is great. When sizing the array based on requirements the option to add more network cards for throughput would be something to help clients. Product Support is best in class as always.
HPE Nimble Storage is a highly effective All-Flash Storage Array solution that aims to enable organizations to reliably store and access their data. Organizations across a wide variety of industries trust Nimble Storage to assist them with all of their data storage-based needs. It both tracks all of the IT architecture that an organization uses and protects that architecture from a variety of digital threats.
HPE Nimble Storage Benefits
Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by...
Most customers in the Bangladesh market want a hybrid solution that has both SAN-based and NAS-based storage. HPE Nimble Storage provides only SAN-based storage and does not support NAS-based storage.
HPE Nimble Storage should improve its latency. It is expensive.
HPE Nimble Storage's predictive analytics are adequate, but not exceptional.
HPE Nimble Storage's cost is very high, making it one of its downsides. HPE Nimble Storage's cost is very high compared with any HCI solutions, like HPE's SimpliVity, Nutanix, VMware, or Dell VxRail. A person requires a special skill set to operate HPE Nimble Storage because there are hardly any solutions similar to Nimble Storage in the market. The product's support can be made faster and more responsive if HPE trains its partners in such a way that they acquire more expertise on Nimble Storage through the training sessions. HPE Nimble Storage is dependent on only VMware vSphere Hypervisor. In the future, HPE has to make Nimble Storage feasible with other hypervisors like Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix Acropolis, and RHEV, meaning it should be hypervisor agnostic.
The solution could reduce its price.
They should improve the solution's pricing.
There should be faster interfaces. It would be nice if you could use something other than the proprietary rights on it.
I don't find anything that is needed in terms of improvement. They are now gradually upgrading everything and are more powerful than we have. It was a bit expensive.
When we’re setting up the solution, making options available regarding the replication tool mechanism would be ideal. There's a Nimble storage-based replication. They need to ensure that a customer beforehand understands what they want to do. When I joined, and I'm only about a year and four months in my new role here, I found that there was a gap in understanding of the type of replication they wanted and what they got. This is why right now, we're trying to change. Instead of having storage level replication, we're going to now buy Veeam so that we can run the applications active. That's how they want it set up. They didn't understand they could do that. They need to give options. In terms of the setup, when someone is buying it, they should actually maybe ensure that they cover the admin portion. They should sit the user down to discuss and say, "If you want to deploy a solution like this, do it like that. If you want it like that, you need to buy this extra, maybe it's Veeam, and ensure you do it like this." That way, they don't just buy Nimble to set it up, and then it's not doing what it's doing. Then they'll think the solution doesn't work. Meanwhile, it's how they implemented it.
We are doing a hybrid and are moving some machines to Microsoft Azure to run in hybrid mode. We are checking the availability of extra software-defined storage so that we can configure it.
The cost of this storage solution should be lower. In the future, I would like to see a lower-end model that has Peer Persistence functionality.
Pure Storages have some option, which allows us the ability to directly download that host inventory and volume report. We can receive everything directly generated from the storage itself. We do not need to use some other web browser or something. If HPE Nimble Storage could do the same it would be a benefit. While we're attaching the host and creating a volume. Afterward, it is a bit difficult compared to all other storage solutions. In other solutions, we can directly search for the host, but in Nimble, the drop-down is difficult.
The solution should allow for easier configurations.
It would be ideal if all these enterprise-class high-performance products would come at a cheaper price. The initial setup could be simplified a bit.
The stability can be improved.
The HPE Nimble Storage could have better integration with monitoring and machine learning system information solutions.
We would like there to be more enhanced features.
I would like to have more administrative rights, for example, root-level administrative rights to the underlying OS of the storage array. We want more access to the kind of underlying infrastructure of the storage array rather than relying on support. However, most companies are looking to have more managed solutions which is the opposite direction of what I want.
Nimble is costlier than EqualLogic, for example. If they could reduce the cost, that would be ideal.
The scalability could be better.
Competitors, such as Dell EMC, make use of NVMe storage. They also use the STM storage module. Primera only has a maximum of eight. In contrast, HPE Nimble Storage does not use NVMe and this makes it challenging for us to convince the customer, who is sometimes aware of this technology, to go with it. HPE does not have sufficient storage. Overall, the customers in need of the solution have sufficient network data storage. There is also SAN storage in one solution, in a single product. I have made three requests that the storage be capable of being samples in a single bundle. We have the protocol as an example when it comes to the product. Yet, if the customer needs to configure NAS storage, this necessitates the purchase of separate software. As the competitors have already launched the solution with NVMe or STM storage, we have also done so with Primera. The same holds true in respect of Dell EMC. In Indonesia we encounter customers who are knowledgeable about the storage and infrastructure and enquire about the solution as it concerns HPE storage.
I think the scalability of HPE Nimble Storage could be improved. In Venezuela, we have to purchase the solution for two years and cannot obtain a secondary storage platform. So from my perspective, the scalability is not as easy as that of 3PAR StoreServ or HPE Primera.
For me, Nimble has two main problems. There is no active-active controller, which means that we can only have one controller online at a time. Replacing the controller is what I see as the only major issue, although I'm not sure that HPE can do this. Nimble has a limit for objects. We have it configured for VMware, so if you have a laptop machine then you have a problem because of this limit. Also, if you have a virtual desktop with a lot of VMs, such as 2,000 to 3,000, then it's a problem because the window has a limit.
When I'm competing against someone, I would like Nimble to be an active-active controller. As it is now, Nimble is an active-passive controller. If the customer is looking for an active-active controller, then we can't use Nimble and have to go with Primera. Nimble gives us a lot of good things, but without the active-active controller, it's pointless.
We want to start storing data in the cloud really soon and we are looking at other options. If there is a solution that could combine Azure backup and interconnect it with storage on-premises and on the cloud, this would be great. This solution could already exist by HP, I have not done the research yet or know what the process looks like.
The quality of technical support depends on which member of the support team you speak with.
The dashboard can be improved. I would like to see more details on the dashboard in the next release.
The most difficult part about Nimble was the fact that it didn't have a standard length. It had a prolonged length to standard servers, which made it slightly challenging to get it installed and we had to switch racks around.
The problem is the price. It needs to be improved. I would like to see an added feature to auto-fix, or a dynamic alerting system on storage. This is very important because we would like to prevent a disk failure before it happens. If we had some sort of AI in place to alert us then we could replace the disk before it occurs. Also, we would like to receive alerts if space is over the limits. This is necessary for us.
The solution requires a higher availability. The pricing of the solution isn't ideal. They should work to make it more affordable. It's very expensive. I'd like to be able to configure the solution from vCenter, which isn't possible right now. It would be great if the solution offered even more integrations and plugins.
Scalability, in terms of being able to scale out, is not easy and should be improved. In the future, I would like to see the vendor upgrade the hardware.
I wish they would put the InfoSight page back the way it was. I got in it for the first time about two years ago, and it looked the same for about a year and a half. Then, about six months ago, it changed. There are different options now. I can still get to where I need to go, but it feels like it takes longer, where before it didn't. Also, I felt like I had a lot more options before. I have to do a lot more to digging now to get to where I need to go. I just wish they had their old page back.
As far as what future versions of the product should include, I don't have any experience with what it is lacking. It is really up to the technical guys to determine what is potentially missing from the solution.
An area that needs improvement is extending the life of the device after five years.
I would like to see more integrations. They might already have them, but I want to integrate it with the different hardware we have.
I would like to see more advanced analytics in the next release of this solution. Perhaps it will help us to see things that we're not seeing already.
I would like deduplication by default on all the volumes. I still don't understand (or know why) dedupe isn't enabled for the templates out-of-the-box. We have to go in and manually enable it each and every time. It might help to have a software revision for something like this, or even a more intuitive local dashboard, not InfoSight, but Nimble's local dash. That would be great. The UI and local dash need improvement. They have changed it around a little bit between firmware upgrades. When you do that, things are out of place and not where they used to be. There is also some granular nitty-gritty analytics that we would like to get down into deeper, like when you view volumes, you have percent-free space, and the ability to sort those volumes by the percentage or sort by the amount of data: the megabytes, gigabytes, etc. That is no longer available in the new UI. I would love to see that improved, where you can sort down the list. While InfoSight is very useful, if you widen your scope of range when you're trying to look at a month of reports, the averaging that it does sort of skews things a bit. If you drill down further into a day or hour, it looks a lot better. I wish they would have a chart or GUI that didn't average as heavily, just giving you minute spikes and things that you could see on a wider view.
It would have been nice if the vendor had informed us of a known bug that occurred during the firmware upgrade because we could have prevented our only major failure. I would like to see greater integration with Microsoft's Hyper-V platform. We are one hundred percent Hyper-V and no longer have use for the expensive VMware platform.
I don't think it is officially released yet, but the main reason that we chose Nimble is because of the sync rep feature. So, I would like to see that further evolve. This feature will be essential for our setups.
I want to see the full integration with OneView. I know they have started it, but I haven't had a chance to look at and evaluate it.
I would like to have integration into cloud providers, apart from HPE. The release cycle for the firmware upgrades could be improved. They are a bit long.
I would like to see the network portion of the product improve, especially with some of the things which are coming out from Aruba and HPE. Both are innovating more of an automated networking. I would like to see our Nimble meld into that and do some automated networking.
The way the market is going, supporting NVMe storage would be useful as a step up.
The product is great. When sizing the array based on requirements the option to add more network cards for throughput would be something to help clients. Product Support is best in class as always.
No areas require improvement at this time. The arrays run very well and updates are flawless when completing.