DataCore SANsymphony Reviews

SANsymphony is our software-defined storage platform that provides the best scalable high availability of our files, and it seems to have the best data protection. 

It enables us to deploy multiple servers and multiple sites to increase data availability. 

SANsymphony ensures business continuity with three lines of defense: transparent bypass of storage problems, reactivation at another location, and secure recovery of an earlier ‘healthy’ data state.

We have had no problems with our files for more than ten years.

Our filesystem has been a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. 

The system has only experienced short downtimes for updates, which can be done part by part. This means that the company users don’t even notice any service downtimes. 

Our filesystem is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our employees, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our redundant file space is a reliable and robust system that has been serving us well for many years. We have been using it without any issues, and it has been working smoothly and efficiently. The system has been designed to ensure that there is no data loss, and we have not experienced any problems with it. Our redundant file space is a testament to our commitment to providing the best possible service to our users, and we are proud of its performance over the years.

Our system is designed to be scalable and flexible, so it can grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients.

We regularly update our software and hardware to ensure that we are using the latest technology and security protocols. We monitor our system 24/7 to ensure that it is always running smoothly.

We have been using this product for a while now. And we have to say that we are still impressed. We need no more features. Our company needs no added or new features; it’s the best solution as it is at the moment. 

The product is (for our implementation) stable and secure. We highly recommend the solution as it is. Use it how it is, and you will see how perfectly it is working.

I'd like to see the company make the renewal of the software cheaper.

I've used the solution for more than ten Years. Our distribution partner recommended this solution. This was the best decision we have made.

We did use a different solution, however, DataCore brings us more comfort.

The service cost and setup are low. Licensing could be cheaper.

Our service provider recommended DataCore, and we have trusted the choices of our partner.

We exchanged our standard storage (conventional storage) with a software-defined solution. We wanted to use something that corresponds to the time, something modern and hardware-independent. 

We had many small problems, but with time, we were on the way. Only once did we have a total failure of the storage, and this was a bug in the software. 

The Disaster Recovery (DR) site helped us to recover the data. This was a one and only case and we were disappointed. In the end, we have two DataCore systems, a two-node system, and a three-node system. Over time I must say, we have been satisfied. It has advanced storage knowledge and good administrators.

DataCore SANsymphony is our main storage system. We were using it in combination with VMware vSphere. Each data store is mirrored; many critical data stores have a 3^rd mirror in their Disaster Recovery site. On the 3^rd mirror copy, we are using continuous protection. The data stores are set to get a maximum of 14 days. Some special data stores have additional snapshots to keep the full backups. We tried to use vFilo. However, this solution was not as good as the NetApp ONTAP software-defined version. I do not know what we will use in the future when choosing the next storage solution. Right now, we are split between NetApp and DataCore.

For us, fault tolerance is the most important feature of DataCore. 

Redundancy mechanisms, such as mirroring or parity, help maintain the integrity of stored data even if one or more components fail. This is essential for mission-critical applications and services that require continuous operation. In the event of a hardware failure or other disruptions, fault tolerant systems enable seamless and uninterrupted access to data, minimizing downtime and associated business impacts. This is especially critical in environments where any interruption in data access can result in significant financial or operational losses. Fault tolerance protects against the loss of data due to hardware failures, ensuring that critical information remains intact. The associated business disruptions can outweigh these initial investments.

The main problem is there is no DataCore OS itself; there is nothing better than one complete solution from one solution provider. We had a lot of issues. It was really disappointing to see that DataCore blamed Microsoft for the problems, Microsoft blamed Lenovo hardware, and Lenovo blamed Datacore.

DataCore should have an OS specifically designed and optimized for managing storage workloads. Only the storage system should have access to encryption and authentication mechanisms to safeguard stored data. The future DC system should be integrated with the DC Hardware, this will enhances interoperability and simplifies the deployment and management of all storage products.

I've used the solution for over ten years.

We did use a different solution; at the time, DataCore was more modern than other competitors.

Don’t do it on your own. You need someone with some DCSA experience and five or more years of experience.

We did not evaluate other options. We wanted DataCore.

This is not a solution for administrators without storage experience; however, if all requirements are met, it is very stable, fast, and flexible.

The solution allows you to virtualize storage via software and not at hardware level, allowing you to also implement hyper-convergence and hardware-independent solutions.

Since the data is written on two distinct nodes yet mirrored between them, this allows for easier maintenance of the individual nodes.

We have implemented the solution to replace the infrastructure consisting of two physical VMware servers and shared storage, thus removing the single point of failure for the connection with the storage.

This solution allows us to have greater data continuity as the data is synchronized between two servers.

In some installations, this solution allows us to have the IT infrastructure replicated between two different sites within our company, and by implementing a third server, it also allows us to have a disaster recovery site external to the company, thus allowing us to have maximum data continuity.

The data synchronization is spectacular. This is the fundamental characteristic of the solution which allows it to overcome the majority of hardware failures or electrical interruptions.

The continuous data protection feature also allows you to have protection from any malicious data encryption attacks, allowing you to perform timely recovery of storage data.

The use of the RAM cache allows you to speed up the writing and reading of data while also allowing for a possible increase in performance by increasing the RAM on the servers.

I found it a little unnecessary to have to rename the configurations within the graphics console in order to have unique names. We're having to rename the network ports in the graphical interface even if this operation had already been done at the operating system level.

There is also a web interface; however, at the moment, it does not have all the features of the standard graphical interface. It would be convenient to have all the features there too.

It would be useful to also integrate commands or scripts for optimizing the ISCSI configuration into the setup; at the moment, it is a separate script that needs to be launched.

I've been working with DataCore for about three years.

It is quite stable. However, it is important to have good coverage in order to handle power surges.

It is a very scalable solution in all directions.

The support has been excellent and punctual on every occasion.

Positive

For some customers, we used Nutanix. We switched to DataCore for an easier implementation.

The configuration is a little laborious. However, it is simple in its implementation.

You get to ROI quickly by reusing material.

The complexity of the initial installation may not be immediately clear.

We evaluated the Dell Vxrail solution.

We use it to ensure the availability and reliability of our clients' storage. It's deployed in environments with VMware, tech servers, and other equipment to establish a highly available infrastructure for our clients.

I find its high performance, total cost of ownership, strong availability, and simplicity to be the most valuable features.

The pricing could be improved.

I have been using this solution for 15 years.  Initially, we started with version 4.0, and now we're on version 10, PSP 16.

It is a very stable solution. 

It's scalable and works well in that aspect. We have around 20 customers using this solution. 

The customer service and support are quite fast. However, it is not a ten on ten because the support was unable to help with a functional program of the solution. The functionality was there, we struggled with it, but the support was unable to help us. 

Positive

The setup process is okay. Training is required for deployment, which is standard. It's not overly complicated.

The deployment process involves analysis, configuration, reception of configuration, and testing with the client.

Analyzing the installation is a very important step. It is important to analyze the installation, the infrastructure, the target, and after that configuration.

We require a team of engineers for deployment and maintenance of the solution. We have ten in-house staff members, along with some freelancers. Globally, we have eight professionals dedicated to DataCore services.

The licensing cost is reasonable, a bit on the expensive side but manageable.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

My advice is to define the solution before deploying it because DataCore is indeed a good solution, but it's not the only one available. There are various other solutions in the market. 

Additionally, DataCore might not be suitable for all projects. Therefore, conducting a comprehensive analysis and careful consideration of the project's needs is crucial. Choosing this solution and deploying it should be approached with utmost importance. For instance, if you're dealing with big databases or transactional databases, it might not be the best-suited solution. The design of DataCore's solution isn't oriented towards this type of data. It's important to recognize this aspect.

I'm working on a SanSymphony infrastructure. I use it for my company, and this is also what we install for our clients.

All of the clients have to do maintenance operations during business hours, and they have to schedule it never to disturb their users. Thanks to San Symphony, they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.

I really like to dissociate virtual volumes from any virtual machines. It allows you to manage granularly the storage of your virtual machines. I separated VMs and files on different volumes in my case

Before using San Symphony, I had to work late to improve my IT infrastructure. Now, I can do it at any time of day.

We also won on availability. When one of the servers crashes, there is no effect on our production. It rarely happens; however, we would have been out of production with our previous infrastructure.

We do things differently now. We use our backup solution to backup storage rather than to backup machines, and I find it has less impact on the performance of our virtual infrastructure.

I really like the Rollback option, which is like a video of my storage. Administrators benefit from being able to return to a single previous point as precisely as they want.

I also find that the support team is a real quality of the Datacore SanSymphony environment. Opening a case is very simple, and the answers of support are always detailed with precision.

The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are many counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like when a backup is in progress).

The product can be improved by making better filters to search event logs. When everybody shows the last event at the top of their board, San Symphony does it at the bottom, and sometimes, we don't see an alert that needs to be checked.

The service is still available every day and at every time of the day, yet only in English. For customers or technicians who don't speak and understand English, it would be great to have other language support, all the more so given the number of countries in which SanSymphony is used.

I've used the solution for three years.

I'm working on a San Symphony Infrastructure. I use it for my company, and this is also what we install for our clients. 

All of the clients have to do maintenance operations during business hours, and they have to schedule it never to disturb their users. Thanks to San Symphony, they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. 

I really like to dissociate virtual volumes from any virtual machines. It allows you to manage granularly the storage of your virtual machines. I separated VMs and files on different volumes in my case

Before using San Symphony, I had to work late to improve my IT infrastructure. Now, I can do it at any time of day. 

We also won on availability. When one of the servers crashes, there is no effect on our production. It rarely happens, but we would have been out of production with our previous infrastructure.

We do things differently now. We use our backup solution to backup storage rather than to backup machines, and I find it has less impact on the performance of our virtual infrastructure.

I really like the Rollback option, which is like a video of my storage. The benefit is for administrators because they can return at a single previous point, as precisely as they want.

I also find that the support team is a real quality of the Datacore SanSymphony environment. Opening a case is very simple, and the answers of support are always detailed with precision.

The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are a lot of counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like when a backup is in progress).

The product can be improved by making better filters to search event logs. When everybody shows the last event at the top of their board, San Symphony does it at the bottom, and sometimes, we don't see an alert that needs to be checked.

The service is still available every day and at every time of the day, but only in English. For customers or technicians that don't speak and understand English, it could be great to have other languages support, all the more so given the number of countries in which SanSymphony is used.

I've used the solution for six months.

I have never heard one of my customers complain about the stability of San Symphony.

I knew about San Symphony six months ago, and this is the second update that I can see. Developers are working in line with what customers are asking for.

Every time I needed support, they gave me a solution.

Positive

I did not use a different solution previously.

The initial setup is very simple. There are documents to send to Datacore Support, and these were a little bit difficult to fill.

We are the vendor team, so for our use, we did it ourselves

The ROI is difficult to estimate.

I did not evaluate other options; my company already has a partnership with Datacore.

We utilize the software-defined storage for our database systems and virtualization environments (we have multiple). One detail we utilize most is the HA provided by the vendor. We have two “legs” for connectivity to our SAN. This provides two logical locations in two physically separate data centers. This keeps our DBAs and admins happy. We can perform changes and updates on one side while the app (DB) data is accessible on the other. The data is synced almost instantly when both sides are up and operational. This allows us a lot of flexibility.

When you have to meet data latency and accessibility requirements you will need to look at this software offering. Our developers and DBAs require uptime and redundancy. This has improved our operational offering to our customers. The end-user finds it fast and reliable. The software works well no matter what storage vendor we put on the back end. We can check storage from startup ABD or price from vendor XYZ. This improves our flexibility and cost savings as we rely on the software and not on a product or manufacturer that locks us in.

Active-active is the most valuable aspect for us. The reason being, we can run our clusters on one side knowing our data is available in the other data center. There is simple management via GUI or command line. 

The software just works and is reliable. Downtime due to storage maintenance or upgrades is long gone. We have multiple types of software running to differentiate our applications. This gives us more value due to the fact that we can segment by application if needed. The bottom line is the software is what runs our applications on whatever storage vendor we choose - and it does so reliably.

One area the company can improve upon is the use of other software. Right now, the version used is run on Microsoft Windows Server. Having a Linux version or even an appliance would be better as it would eliminate the use of additional licensing for another piece of hardware. While the Windows server has gotten more reliable, I would like it more if it would not be dependent on Microsoft Windows Servers. 

Improving the GUI would be another feature where they could add to the software. They should make it more intuitive by simplifying the layout.

I have been working with the software for over five years. 

The software is very stable.

The scalability is very good. 

Customer support is hit or miss. There are good technicians, however, some are not so good.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. We have been using this software for some time now.

You may want to get professional services to start the setup if there are key features you want to be implemented.

We had a very good team implementation.

The software paid for itself long ago.

I'd advise users to do their homework. This software gives you good reliability and performance.

We did not evaluate other options.

I like the product and will continue to use it well into the future.

I am an infrastructure engineer for a partner and 95% of the infrastructure that I recommend and/or install and maintain for my clients are based on the triptych: SANsymphony/vSphere/Veeam.

I have often succeeded in convincing clients to add security to their storage by replacing an old single-site infrastructure while providing a Business Continuity Plan solution.

Of all the customers where I installed the DataCore solution, only one decided not to keep it; however, it was for reasons of political strategy following a change of CIO.

The main feedback from my customers concerns the performance of the DataCore SANsymphony - thanks to the embedded Auto-tiering technology which avoids users purchasing an expensive physical storage when the majority of their data is no longer active beyond a few weeks and do not need to be stored.

They have a quality support team, which offers assistance in French when necessary (particularly for Public Service customers who do not speak English fluently). They respond very quickly to engage with any serious problems encountered.

Auto-tiering to obtain performance at a lower cost without the customer having to purchase ultra-fast storage is great. The ease of increasing the volume of storage without interruption of services and without impact on users is helpful. At the same time, they are leaving the choice to adapt storage technology according to a user’s needs. The abstraction of the hardware layer, especially when it is necessary to change the brand and/or model of equipment during infrastructure renewal is good. The possibility of installing the solution in HCI mode for small structures makes it possible to address large accounts as well as small businesses.

I would like to see SMPA (Shared Multi-Port Array) technology developed with the aim of allowing a configuration identical to other storage arrays: instead of having a single storage controller per site, competing arrays all have 2 controllers for redundancy and securing data access (3Par, Unity, MSA, etc.) It would be necessary to automate the operation of two nodes managing the same storage per site and no longer be obliged to manage it by a system of scripts which must be revalidated each time the product is updated.

I've used the solution since 2002.

There will always be problems with a software solution; the responsiveness of the support and developers allows them to be corrected very quickly, and even sometimes individually, in relation to a specific problem for a particular client.

In the majority of cases, the failures that I encountered with my clients had their origin in one of the other components of the infrastructure (hypervisors or switches).

Scalability is one of the many advantages, as the evolution of the solution is simple and does not interrupt services.

Of all the software that I use in my job, it is the one that has the best support. When the problem is not with DataCore, they often help me and sometimes even directly provide the solution to modify the settings on the other components of the infrastructure causing the problem.

Positive

Sometimes some customers use other storage solutions, but whenever possible; I advise them to switch to DataCore

The initial training and accompanying certification made it simple and practical to implement the solution.

I am not able to answer for my clients; however, as long as they do not move to another solution, their ROI should correspond to their expectations.

Most of the time, it is easy to prove that in the long term, this solution is the most advantageous for the client cost-wise; both in terms of equipment renewal and ease of handling.

When I started proposing and installing, I only knew about traditional infrastructures that did not provide security at the data level.

My professional career will end soon; however, as long as the product is available, I will continue to recommend it to more and more new customers and maintain it among those who continue to use it.