What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution as a financial system for core banking.
We use the Flash 7200 which is the solution's newest version and different from the V9.
How has it helped my organization?
One of the main benefits to our company is that we are very familiar with the solution. We started using it around 2013 so have many years of experience with it. We see ongoing use as having a good benefit to us.
What is most valuable?
The solution has high IOPS and the I/O is important because it gives us more transactions per second. We are not just trying to improve but we are trying to maintain the current growth of the load.
There are never any major downtimes or failures brought about by the storage.
What needs improvement?
The solution should improve deduplication to get a lot of savings.
To upgrade memory, you have to go through your license and that process is difficult.
The solution should include IBM Spectrum Virtualize.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable so I rate stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability used to be an issue so at that time it was rated an eight out of ten.
We have become OPEX-based and rent storage from them. Physical storage is about 200% of our requirements but we only pay for what we use. This resolved all of our scalability issues. When we reach a certain threshold like 100%, OPEX calls us and asks if we want to add more storage.
Our total capacity right now is 300 terabytes but we are only using around 200 terabytes. We bought the storage two years ago and our projections are on par. We don't need more capacity now but have plans to increase in another two years.
With our OPEX storage, scalability is rated a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support could improve. Their response time for site visits is slow.
We don't have major downtimes but sometimes we encounter a certain problems and need assistance with components. The response time is a bit slow when declaring that a component is already fixed or needs to be replaced. Getting replacement components is also slow.
For comparison, Cisco has a better response time.
Support is rated a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The setup is easy. We are familiar with it so there is nothing to learn anymore.
Setup is rated a nine out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution in-house and it took about three days.
IBM won't let any other hands on the config so that took one day. Their advanced services or SDG Lab handles deployment of storage, wiring, and software.
After that, the solution was handed over to us and we set up all the physical requirements within two days. We are adept and quite equipped at setting up machines.
Overall, it was a very straightforward install. We mounted and then IBM checked the wirings and installed the software. We set up the volumes for the storage itself and some of the configurations. That's it. It was not difficult for us.
Commonly, an install can be handled by one IBM technician and two of our in-house experts.
Our staff handles all ongoing maintenance which is very minimal even though we operate 24/7.
What was our ROI?
We have realized ROI because we started using the solution in 2016. It has pretty much paid for itself.
The ROI is rated an eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is enterprise level so it is expensive. Our relationship with IBM makes pricing better for us. We have been end-user customers for a long time so have a good relationship with IBM.
The original licensing cost with maintenance was usually around 30% of the purchase price. Now, we just pay for what we use with OPEX storage.
Pricing is rated a two out of ten.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated and tested many options including HPE, Dell, EMC prior to it being bought by Dell, and IBM.
We ran our system, did a batch running, conducted some tests, and determined that IBM was the fastest. Speed was the key factor in our decision.
At that time, VersaStack wasn't yet named. The solution is the pairing up of Cisco Compute with IBM Storage. We were the first ones to do VersaStack in our country.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution. It is important to be aware of the software you need to install to maximize your benefit. For example, you should install the included monitoring software.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
