HPE Hyper Converged Reviews

So far the solution has simplified the usage.

I've found the data protection features the most valuable.

The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM.

Stability is very good. 

In terms of scalability, a lot has been done so it's quite easy to add additional load. Since it is only a testing system, there is a relatively small number of people using the solution right now. Less than 10 people are using it.

In general, HP has good technical support. There are local teams here, and usually, the first level is done by contacting them. HP is not directly present. They changed their model, and a new company, that they selected, represents them here.

We did previously use another solution, but we felt it was time to try something else.

The setup was quite easy.

We implemented with the help of HP.

I would say that this solution is good depending on your needs and on budget. It's a good solution. Compared to the previous solution we used, it may not be vas good. But generally speaking, it's okay. I cannot say anything bad. It's only very small differences.

I would rate this solution eight out of 10. I would still like to see some other hypervisors available as an option to be used on the system - like KVM or Microsoft Hyper-V.

If you were comparing this solution to VMware, it has more features, and it's very fast on the recovery.

One problem I've had is that I was trying to do a move and it was not working. I was given an error and a message asking me to shut down the machine first and then move it to another host. While in the normal VM, we just used the existing viable machine and moved it to another host without an issue.

As this product is new to me, I need to do a bit more training to see what it offers.

It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful.

The stability is so nice. We like it.

The scalability is good. Right now we are deploying our production environment and our plan is to do the same in the DR environment also. We plan on increasing usage in the future.

Technical support has been fine so far. We have only been using the solution for the last two or three months, so it's hard to answer this question because we are new.

As far as I know, we did not do the installation, it was done with another company.

We were working with a vendor for HPE and they did all of the installations for us. 

The solution is easy to use and the data application and data recovery so far are better and faster than the competition. Many other features are really great.

I would rate it a seven out of 10. We like Hyper Converged HPE, but there's definitely a lot of unfamiliar features that I cannot comment much about until I've experienced them. 

Our main use of the HPE Hyper Converged is for datacenter consolidation.

The most valuable features are the ease of use, resiliency of solution and data protection.

I would like to see more flexibility in the offered configurations.

For instance a software-only version of the solution, without the hardware, would be nice. This would give me the opportunity to use existing hardware in my datacenter and run the Simplivity software on top of that giving me access to all nice features of the Data Virtualization Platform of Simplivity.

I haven't had any issues with stability.

It fulfills all my needs. All the things I need to scale everything up is possible with the solution. It depends of course on how many users have already used it. I have no plans to increase, but the solution allows for growth. I just don't actually use it today.

So far, the support has been really good.

Adding InfoSight to Simplivity will make support even better with its AI engine.

I used the previous generation of HPE hyper converged, which was based on VSA technology. We switched because the VSA was going to end of support and I need a solution that is supported by the manufacturers.

It was really straightforward. The deployment took in total somewhere around two hours.

I did the deployment by myself.

When I look at the TCO of this solution is this much better compared to my old traditional environment

I watched to vSAN and Storage Spaces, but found some limitations that I did not see in the HPE solution.

The assessment of the current configuration is the most important to make a good sizing of the new solution because it does good duplication and compression, but it's really hard to select the correct product sizing.

I would rate this solution as nine out of ten because ten is perfect and there is nothing on the market that is perfect.

HPE Hyper Converged handles all the network setup for my servers and data.

My experience is in SMBs.

Before we bought the HPE Hyper Converged servers, we had scattered systems and servers. Our data was scattered. When the solution came into place, we were able to connect all our data and organize it in one place. Now, our storage and IT are at an enterprise level with all the necessary controls and restrictions being enacted.

We will also be using the HPE Hyper Converged solution for simulations going forward once we install SAP.

The performance is robust for HPE Hyper Converged. We have been underutilizing the storage. Though, we have almost consumed 70 percent of the storage, and I can access my data whenever I want without searching all over the place for it.

In comparison, the VxRail is better in resource utilization and performance. It is also faster. It automatically will detect anything and configure anything. Learning VxRail is easier, as everything is native and linked together.

The storage efficiency is weak and needs to be improved. However, I do not think HPE is planning to improve it at this time. They will probably look to EOL it, because HPE SimpliVity has resolved this issue, but at a higher price tag.

To resolve this issue with HPE Hyper Converged, I will buy a backup appliance, then I will shift my data which I am not using often to a backup appliance. This will be offline data and solve my issues.

It is a stable solution because combined with VMware, which is always stable. It is very robust. 

HPE Hyper Converged supports up to 60 nodes. It is scalable, but we have to use the HPE OneView solution and have it to pass through vCenter. This consumes 10 cores of CPUs, which compromises performance.

Dell EMC VxRail supports up to 32 nodes, but is more futuristic and easier to scale. If you want to scale up, you just plug the nodes, then the cluster will detect the new node and configure it.

With Dell EMC, they own everything and create one solution altogether. They design it in the way where they know the weaknesses of every solution that they have. 

This is much better than HPE. For example, I remember during the last storage issue that I had. HPE technical guys weren't able to support it, so I had to go back to VMware. This creates a loop or weakness. 

When you buy from Dell EMC directly, you receive that one point of contact for service and support.

The implementation took almost two days for us, even though HPE told us that it would take two hours.

When comparing VxRail vs HPE Hyper Converged, VxRail is easier to implement. You just initiate the start, then it automatically starts the configuration. It detects the nodes and everything else. Everything which is connected to the data center is set up within two to three hours (maximum). While I haven't done the set up, I have seen it done.

Pricing with Dell EMC is double the price which I paid for HPE. However, in the end, Dell EMC is double in performance. This is not an apple to apple comparison though, as I have a four node from Dell EMC and a three node.

I don't feel VxRail is that expensive.

The competitors in the market are HPE SimpliVity, VxRail, and Nutanix. All these solutions are extremely pricey. 

I feel VxRail is one of the best solutions you might ever have because of the protection it offers. 

SimpliVity is good, and it's reliable. It supports one node.

HP 380 is not up to the level of VMware products. They have more features, such as duplication or compression. 

My entire environment is actualized in VMware.

Before choosing a product, think why you are buying, the reason, and what you are looking to get from it. If you have too much data or you want to store data, seeking a hyperconverged storage will be costly. It will not be efficient for you. You should look into alternative storage solutions and ways of implementation before buying a hyperconverged solution. Make sure you are actually need those features.

The future is in hyperconverged solutions. They are much easier to manage and run. They are flawless. You can just log into VMware and have everything in front of you. However, it's costly compared to a traditional setup. 

A company should look at the data protection features, because in the end, the most valuable asset in any organization is its data. It should be protected as much as possible. Consider the way it works, with its space saving and space efficiency. Those are the key factors you should look at before deciding on a solution.

I would rate HPE Hyper Converged as seven out of ten.

I would rate VxRail as a nine out of ten.

Before deploying the product, we did not have any enterprise IT infrastructure. Now, with the HC380 deployment, we succeeded in building all the required servers, organizing the data and protecting it, which has increased our operational efficiency and level. 

Now, we have flexibility thanks to HPE HC380 and VMware.

1. The ease of use and management. 
2. The speed: It is extremely fast. 
3. The price per value compared to other solutions, like Nutanix and SimpliVity. (We made the deal before approval of HPE SimpliVity deal). 
4. The HA, which means I have a copy of the VMs always available, and the moment a VM is down, the system tries to power it on again. 

The drawback: I do not have deduplication, compression, and DR features, which were later addressed through HPE SimpliVity acquisition.

Data protection and optimization: It is really weak. They do not offer deduplication or compression. Also, we do not have a real backup solution. It is just snapshots, which is forcing us to do automatic backups of the extremely important data on different servers. Thus, if I can have a deal with HPE to have an upgrade to SimpliVity with our current agreement, it would work well. We are in negotiations and we hope to reach happy ending soon.

Not yet at all. It is very stable and robust. The only problem HC380 has is the data backup and management (deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization).

I have not faced this as we have not scaled up yet. We might scale up as we are planning to implement SAP S/4HANA.

I have proactive support from HPE. Their support is really good and the moment you need them, you can find them.

Not at all. Previously, we did not have a hyper-converged solution.

The initial setup took almost two days as we were the first to implement this solution in the region and none of the team had experience, although they were trained. They were always in contact with HPE support.

HPE pricing is good. It was much cheaper than their competitors. It does not have any hidden costs as the other competitors. I just have to pay for the support after my three year support contract finishes.

Yes, Nutanix and SimpliVity. 

Nutanix pricing was slightly more expensive. After three years, I have to pay support three times more than what I will pay for HPE. 

For SimpliVity, buying two servers of SimpliVity would cost me twice as much as buying three servers of HPE HC380 at that time of purchase. Now, the gap has been reduced, that is why I am in discussions with them.

It is a very robust solution and easy to manage. If you do not have the budget limitation constraints, my advice is to go for HPE SimpliVity as it is the most complete solution until now, if I am not mistaken.

We had four ESX hosts and a big storage rack. We needed to replace it really quickly. It's all VMware stuff and it involved moving it over. The unit came in. Our lead architect spent an hour with it, figured out a couple IP addresses that it needed to have, and it was up and running in four hours. He was able to migrate all the workloads off the old equipment in three days. From the time it came into the building, it took three days. Everything was moved over.

He was moving things slowly at first, moving non-critical things during the day. Then once we saw it was non-impact, he just moved the rest of it. That old equipment was ready to go just like that. This is a C250, which doesn't have the back up and all the extra features that SimpliVity has, but if they're delivering that kind of functionality in the same way that they delivered the C250, then that'd be great.

The most valuable feature was its time to delivery.

I'm guessing that the next release will be the SimpliVity stack. I don't know. It seems like they've got a lot of features packed in there. There's nothing that comes to mind in terms of improvement. It has worked pretty well. We've had to do a power cycle to bring it all the way down, bring it back up for power outages, A/C shut-downs of our DC office, but it hasn't presented a problem.

Stability is really good. I guess there's not much else to say. We've been running it for a year and a half. We bought it near the beginning of its offering to meet a specific challenge. We were a little bit nervous at first. We looked at Nutanix. We looked at some other hyper-converged units. We saw the HPE offering as a value proposition for us. It's worked out pretty well. We have decided to set that as a standard for our remote and branch offices. In fact, we just ordered another one for our San Francisco office to replace their equipment.

Scalability is a question that we have. We only have four node units and we were wondering if it makes sense. Where's the inflection point here? Will we actually implement that in our data center? Do we want a standard composable system, or would we do a bunch of nodes? At this point, we have a bunch of SimpliVity nodes versus blades plus Nimble Storage.

That's a decision that we're going to be looking at in the next two years. I'm very interested to see testimonies of how it scales. I just came from the Red Bull presentation, and it looks like they had a similar amount of VMs and storage, and they moved everything to six nodes of SimpliVity. That's very encouraging.

We haven’t needed to use technical support.

We decided on HPE because it was at the right price point. There's a certain brand confidence that we had with it. All of our other equipment worked with HPE. We had a good a good partner and it was at the right price point.

We knew it was time to look for a new product because we were doing a renovation in our DC office, which is our main office. We were moving a large amount of equipment to a new co-location in Ashburn, which is outside of Washington, DC. We still needed to maintain a significant amount of compute and storage on premises. As part of the renovation, we were losing our 400-square-foot computer room, and it was going down to maybe 150 square feet. We had to significantly reduce our rack space. In essence, we had to reduce two and a half racks down to two. That was one of the drivers. We wanted to reduce the amount of power, the number of UPS units, and the cooling. This solution hit all of those targets.

When I first went to get the product, it was a little bit of sticking my neck out, taking a little bit of a risk. For someone who's very risk-averse, that was my first step out. Looking back after a year and a half, I really think that it was the right decision.

It has made my job easier. As we're thinking about San Francisco, we had a month to try to figure out, "How are we going to move all this equipment?" We decided, let's get a new hyper-converged unit and move everything over. Then we'll leave the old equipment. We don't need to pay for the transportation costs of that old equipment. We can decommission it and send it back early, because it was on lease.

I was not directly involved in the initial setup, but I was watching it. He finished it an hour or two. From what he said, it was pretty straightforward.

We looked at Nutanix. We looked at some other hyper-converged units.

Make sure that you order the right connectors to connect to your existing storage to move everything. Make sure that you have that inter-connect to move all your data off of your old legacy equipment.

I just know that it works. If you find a good partner that gives you a PoC unit, I'm sure that they'll find that it's quick to get up and running.

It's easier to maintain. We think it offers performance benefits and easier use.

We like the fact that the hyper-converged infrastructure provides a simple to grow, easy to configure platform. It meets our needs now, but if there's growth later, it's easy to add on another node or two.

You don't have to go out and get more servers and get additional pieces of the SAN. It's one box that has its own warranty, so it's not mixing. With the SAN, you'd get additional drives, but they'd have a warranty that started and ended separate from the original SAN. It got complicated. This makes all of that process easier.

From the release that we have, we'd like to see better integration with vCenter and OneView. I believe the vCenter integration is available in an update that was released earlier this year. We have not applied it yet. It is complex to set up and it is not something you would really want to have to do yourself.

The software version on the HC380s we are using is version 1. It does not support spanned vCenter which we use since we have multiple sites. I heard that the version 2 of the software handles that better.

We are working with HPE to get the software updated to the new version.

Our implementation involved two separate clusters at two different locations. We wanted to be able to manage the two clusters from a peered vcenter instance so we could have 2 independent clusters but one management point. The version of software and OneView that were available at the time of installation did not support peered vCenters.

So better integration will all of the features supported by vCenter. There might be another option it was not discussed at the time of the install if there was or is.

We haven't had any issues with the stability. We're still in a pre-production phase and there was a drive fail in the first couple months. That's not uncommon for the initial stages. We haven't any other issues.

We haven't scaled it, but that's one of the reasons why we chose it, because of the fact that it is scalable.

We used technical support for the drive. They were very good.

We've been looking for something that was easily scalable and would meet our needs for our VMware platform. When we came across this solution, it fit those needs. When selecting a vendor, we look for reputation.

The setup was a little bit complex. There were a lot of things to do with the USB drive to reload the images and then build it up. If it didn't build in a particular order, then that node has to be reloaded and you start all over again. They were also fairly new at the time, so hopefully it's gotten easier since then.

We also looked at Simplivity and Nutanix. Simplivity was really our vendor of choice, but the price point was a little high and they didn't have the longevity that we were looking for in a vendor. If we were to do this again today, we probably choose Simplivity, because they were acquired by HPE.

They should talk with their HPE rep and see about either getting a demo or having a technical conversation about that. It's worth the time.

The time to deploy is very fast.

The provisioning is very fast. It’s not a problem for us to achieve the goals of the client.

I would like to see a more intuitive, user-friendly UI.

It is stable 95% of the time, and the rest is due to human error.

We haven't developed a scalability platform yet.

I would give technical support a rating of 10/10. We call for typical issues. Even for those of us who have taken the courses and are certified, we sometimes have issues that we need help with.

We knew we had to invest in a new solution because we needed more stability and faster connections. We didn’t have a solution previous to this one. In my country, we don't have many choices to select companies to provide us with hardware. HPE is in my country. We also had Dell, but we don't trust Dell. We had so many issues with Dell. So now it's all HPE.

The installation was very complex.

Take a course first, even if you are an engineer. At least take a course for the administration of this product. This can be very complex to use.