FlexPod XCS Reviews

Our primary use for it is in the healthcare market. We have a lot of customers using it because they want to have some flexibility with storage and compute. That is the reason we are selling it in the healthcare market.

It's much cheaper than the old legacy stuff, especially the storage. It means that our customers don't have to take care of separate storage, separate compute, but can combine them. It streamlines things, especially for development.

The flexibility of using it for compute as well as the flexibility of the storage itself.

When it's running, it's running. It's fine. We are impressed with the product. At the beginning, because it was new for us, there were some issues, but now, after some implementations, it has been okay.

It's scalable.

Technical support has been very helpful, and also very polite. They guided us through the process, followed up with us. I've had a good experience with them.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We also looked at HyperFlex. HyperFlex is also compatible but I think NetApp SolidFire is more robust.

Our primary criteria when selecting a vendor are to get support, a good solution, one that our customers are happy with.

My advice would be, try it, buy it, see what you can do with it and get some experience with it. With that experience, you can better sell it to the customer.

We use it for virtualizing infrastructure and also for the virtual cloud system.

It gives us pretty solid support from either Cisco or NetApp as well as an all-in-one infrastructure. We don't need a storage expert to manage everything for us.

• Easy management
• High performance 
• A single point of support

It's pretty stable. There is a small issue with the NetApp and another small issue with Cisco UCS plates, there is a failed disk, but we got a replacement right away so it's pretty solid.

It's very easy to extend it, add more chassis, more storage capacity.

We use both NetApp and Cisco for support. I would rate the support at eight out of 10.

Before FlexPod we were using IBM. We switched because it's all about unifying the systems, converging the systems. We felt we should have a solution from network to storage to the server, and computing power, from the same vendor, all in one solution; not take pieces from different vendors and put them together.

When choosing a vendor the most important criteria are the vendor's reputation and tech support.

We bought a few chassis because we have different locations, different data centers. For the first location, we got help from NetApp and Cisco. For the next few locations, we mostly did it by ourselves.

We initially spoke with Cisco and they recommended this solution.

I would advise doing a proof of concept, see it first.

Overall, I would rate FlexPod an eight out of 10. It's fast, solid, and it keeps improving, adding new features. The support is very good. There have even been times we didn't realize there was an issue and we have automatically received a replacement; all through "call home."

There's one number to call if you have a problem, they can get it fixed.

Also, it's good to have everything set up the right where you know; all this works together if you do the config right. There's no performance issues.

The simplicity means I don't have to spend all day troubleshooting gremlins.

It helped make things easier so we don't have the tracking down gremlins. Before we used this it was, "Oh, this server's not working right. Why?" And then we have to dig through; and we haven't had any of those since we started with FlexPod.

I know there are other versions of FlexPods beyond what we use. I've only dealt with basically the Cisco NetApp VMware version. I can't think of any other features that I would need.

It's always nice if it's cheaper. We've been locked into all this. We could save money and go with HyperV but then you have other issues. There are always things you can do to save money but you have to ask yourself if it's worth it.

About three years.

No issues. Very stable.

We haven't had any issues with that either. If we have to add, we add, and it all works together.

Honestly, FlexPod-related, we haven't had any. Very rarely do you have problems that are related to the FlexPod. If anything, we'll have issues with VMware that are not related to anything else, then we have to go to them. They are responsive and knowledgeable.

No. We've used bits and pieces of it; the three different pieces, we have always used VMware. We're always using that app but then kind of brought UCS into it and then built the FlexPod.

We switched for the simplicity of having one number to call.

I came in after it was already setup. I do firmware upgrades and some things like that. It is not complex.

I think it's valuable to anyone. I don't think it's related to industry, rather it's for anyone who runs a datacenter.

• Pretty much a single phone number to call when there is a problem.
• Ease of use
• Manageability for the storage system

It is valuable, because it is easy. Easy to use, so we don't spend a whole lot of time learning new products out there. That is a major plus.

It definitely made an impact to how we manage our data. We recently have a new data center, and we migrated our data from one of the older storage solutions out there to an all NetApp environment.

Tighter integration with CISCO.

Since 2013.

It's very stable. We haven't really had any major issues with the FlexPod solution in all four years.

I find it very easy to scale upwards and horizontally, as well. It's very easy for us to scale up by adding either additional controllers or additional storage shelves.

We have used tech support. They are very knowledgeable and very prompt in getting back to us.

We have engaged technical support to assist us on a lot of different things. Whenever we have a case open, and if we think it requires some escalation, we have a SAM and they make sure we get the resources that we need and get back to normal operations within a short period of time.

Before Flexpod, we had other Meta app systems going back to 2008.

We're a health system company, so we have a number of different storage solutions. However FlexPod, it has everything.

We still have a few solutions because some applications have their specific storage systems, and being in the health industry, those applications are usually approved by FDA, and it's not something which can be changed at will.

I was involved in the initial setup. It's pretty straightforward.

Valuable features include the ease of use. The training was pretty good for our junior Marines.

The implementation was relatively easy and the OS supports resiliency.

Right now, we have our Enterprise Services on it, Sharepoint, our print server, and our VDI construct.

We also have some in-house, homegrown applications, and a whole bunch of admin servers and information insurance servers.

With the FlexPod solution we've been able to employ VDI, the first in the Marine Corps. It seems to be working very well.

We have our whole staff, from a three star executive down to the lowest person on it, and now we're extending those services across the United States. Our whole team supporting the whole FlexPod is eight people. That is relatively small in my eyes.

I don't think we've embraced the current solution fully, so we're I think two OSs behind right now.

I probably don't have an answer for that yet until we start getting the new solutions, the new OSs out.

I think they're going in the right direction. They have a virtual OS, they have different ways that we could maybe embrace different storage, but they're still maintaining the front-end. They are going forward with it and we just have to start looking at it with a little more detail.

Due to the FlexPod, there were no scalability issues. Due to our human error, I would say there were issues. But in terms of the equipment, it is built-in. As long as we're configured correctly, it has built-in fail over. It is highly available at all times.

We currently have eight servers, and we just got another FlexPod with additional servers so we can scale up to another 11. We're looking at establishing a co-op that will allow us to have an off-site presence. We are working on that now, but it is scalable. We just haven't employed it fully yet.

In terms of technical support, we have it from NetApp and Cisco. We called external people in. FCN came on site.

NetApp is always supporting us for technical support services. They have great quality. NetApp even provided support for networking stuff for us, so they were great. We’ve been happy.

I was involved in the initial setup. For the second one setup, for the one we have now, it was pretty easy. We tied into some of the existing hardware, i.e., the Nexus. Most of it was pretty easy. It had a slightly different OS, but it was relatively straightforward.

We looked at a lot of different vendors. We were just happy with the vendors that were in the original FlexPod.

The support was there and it actually serviced us perfectly. We looked at Dell. Dell's always has a solution there. They always want to try to get where we are.

The biggest competitor, looking at their solution, is the EMC solution set.

We decided to stay with NetApp because, of the disc. We like how it tracks the disc and we can move the disc around.

We have to pull out our discs regularly for accountability of our drives. NetApp allows us to do that a little easier for maintenance cycles.

We can actually put it back in with very negligible downtime. We like the service that we get and the name recognition. We're just used to NetApp.

Identify your requirements, make sure you know what they are, and don't fall short in doing so. If you do, that may drive you to a different solution. It's not all about cost. Rather, it is the value that it brings to you.

We really like the validated design, just being able to reach out to one number and get support from the whole staff. For us, with FlexPod, just the support is really our biggest key. It's just virtualized servers of various sorts: active directory and exchange servers.

Just the biggest benefit has been performance, not having to worry about is this component going to be able to work with another component, since it is all validated. When we've had problems, just being able to call one number to get it fixed. that saved us lots of time.

It would be nice to have more of a single pane of glass from a management standpoint. As it is now, we can manage the virtual machines and the storage from one, but then we start getting it, okay, now we have to manage another component, we have to go to another area.

The third component, we have to go to another one. It would be nice just to have one central management component for the whole FlexPod solution.

We also had some issues with some performance initially, under our first system; then once we did an upgrade, we haven't had any issues since. New model would have higher rating.

We've had FlexPod for five to six years and we have not had any downtime.

Stability has been rock solid. We haven't had any issues from a stability standpoint.

The scalability has been pretty good. We tend to just upgrade components when needed, and just never had any issues with that upgrade process. We are the world's largest tire distributor, so it's been a big deal for us to be able to scale out.

We have used technical support. I would give them a rating of 7/10. Our initial problem is that I think we got an engineer who wasn't quite aware of the whole FlexPod solution, so they were directing us incorrectly. And then we got someone who knew how to do it, and they handled it correctly.

We knew we needed a new solution because we ran out of capacity and performance. On top of the NetApp, we also evaluated EMC. They were the main ones, and we just ended up still staying with the NetApp. We decided to stay with NetApp partially because the support model we had for it, we liked better.

The initial setup was great. We had a partner do the installation and just everything went very smoothly.

I like the fact that it is all integrated. That is the biggest thing. You get everything, all in one shot. A good example of that is when you are doing a rip-and-replace of your storage. It allows you to bring UCS and NetApp in at the same time, at the five- or six-year mark, when your storage starts to get some age on it and you are looking to get into new technology. It is really handy to grab something like that to get everything taken care of. I like the fact that it is all one big, solid unit.

It really didn't change much in the implementation that I had because we already had an existing UCS installation. The good thing about it was that it just fell in and integrated with what we already had.

Seeing some integration to cloud would be important, for sure. That was what I was hoping to see with some of the new data ONTAP features that we were going to learn about at a recent conference I attended. I'd like to see, for example, a namespace that you can extend to a cloud provider, so that you can just do a straight vol move from on-prem out to cloud.

The support aspect was something that was lacking a little bit. NetApp has improved a little bit there, but we have struggled with some support issues, even here recently. I'm hoping that NetApp can get the support piece figured out.

We have had no issues stability-wise.

We didn't need to scale ours.

Technical support is not fantastic. Especially when I was supporting the FlexPod at a previous employer, we had some issues. We were one of the early adopters of cluster mode. Calling up some NetApp engineers to get some support had some issues, where the senior-level engineers were still the 7-mode people, I would get a list of commands saying, "Here is what you would do if you were running 7-mode." It wasn't super helpful.

I did not previously use a different solution; not to the level of storage that NetApp is going to provide for sure. It was kind of a homegrown system that they had.

I didn't set it up, but I oversaw the initial setup of it by a third-party company. It seemed pretty straightforward.

I think we compared three different vendors at the time.

We chose NetApp because of our familiarity with it, for one; two, the price was right.
As far as bringing in vendors for storage, it is important that they have experience with whatever storage that we are looking at; what level their engineers are at. The partner that we went with, we knew that they had experience with NetApp in the past, and so we trusted bringing them in to help get the FlexPod set up.

Definitely leverage NFS datastores if you are going to be running VMware. Don't just treat it as any old storage. Think about the fact that NetApp is invested heavily into the WAFL file system and the whole bit.

There is a ton of preparations that you would need to do before implementation. That could be a months-long process. Make sure that you have the right equipment that is going to connect into it; your top-of-rack switches and the whole bit.

The features that are the most valuable to me are the simplified setup and administration, and the scalability of the system.

FlexPods are very easy to setup and maintain, and they are scalable. That brings a high level of value to companies because the system can be upgraded and utilized for many years.

A unified interface for all the components would be a great start. Since FlexPods are a mixture of three different technologies, each component must be separately administered.

I have been using and installing FlexPods for the past three years. I have installed FlexPods in multiple environments as well as with multiple models of hardware.

Each deployment is different for every client. The use of the FlexPod architecture is different nearly every time in some fashion. Any issues that arise come more from a design aspect than the actual FlexPod itself. Clients tend to design around their needs, and the FlexPod is flexible enough to accommodate, if installed correctly.

FlexPods are wonderful for tech support and customer service. Because it is a mixture of three different technologies, Cisco and NetApp and VMware have worked out a deal that you can call any of their support numbers and they’ll get the other vendors on the line as needed to troubleshoot your problems. This is a great way to handle things, instead of you having to call each vendor separately and being given the run-around.

Many companies have used different solutions in the past. Blade server and bare metal servers have been around for a long time, but Cisco got it right with UCS. The UCS computing platform is the key to making a FlexPod what it is, and the primary reason for clients to choose it for their computing needs.

The initial setup of each component is very simple, and usually taking only a few minutes for each. Once each part is setup, it then becomes more complex to integrate them together. Typically, a good FlexPod setup, following the validated designs, can take four to five days to build, then another couple days to verify.

I am the vendor, so I do the delivery of the FlexPod and installation and configuration. My advice for implementation is to have a qualified, knowledgable vendor either do the installation, or assist. I am not saying this from a business standpoint, but from personal knowledge of the product. It is something that can be done by anyone, but it would take less time and be setup with best practices in mind if you get someone who knows what they are doing.

ROI is very difficult to truly quantify, but as far as pricing goes, it totally depends on the size of the system and what components you desire. Because the FlexPod is really just an architecture based on standards, pricing can range all over the place. For small businesses, you might want a FlexPod mini. For larger corporations, you might want multiple FlexPod installations.

Licensing is also an interesting topic since you will need to license UCS for the number of chassis as well as rack servers. NetApp needs to be licensed by the features you intend to use. Nexus licensing is based on the number of ports in the switch if I remember correctly. Then it comes down to what kind of installation you’re doing for any additional licensing. If you’re installing VMware, you need licensing for that product. If you chose to install Hyper-V, then licensing is different. If you choose Oracle Linux, or Windows, or something else, licensing changes again. What I suggest if to get a vendor in to help discuss and design the FlexPod around the needs of the company.

FlexPod is is not really a product, but more of an architecture based on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco Nexus Switches, and NetApp Storage. It is one of the best unified computing architectures out there, and is highly scalable.

FlexPods are perfect for nearly any environment, can be scaled out to fit the needs of the company, have longevity, and can be managed globally. Get a vendor who knows what they are doing and they can help you be successful.