HPE Nimble Storage Reviews

We use it to extend the data center a little further. We have videos which are very large in size and which cannot be compressed. We ran out of space in the data center so we moved the media data center and expanded it. The videos are a business-critical application. We provide videos for students to access 24/7.

We feel that we can rely on this solution more for the business-critical applications we have, compared to what we had earlier.

Also, the all-flash positions our organization for growth. Video quality keeps increasing. From 4K we are now moving to 8K and we expect that the size of each video file is going to grow very high. So our data size is increasing very fast.

In addition, we have noticed that the solution has increased performance.

We like the performance.

I would like to see more integrations. They might already have them, but I want to integrate it with the different hardware we have.

We moved to this solution for the stability. We had an HPE consultant configuring it and we went through some of those features that it enables. We also like the cloud-ready portion and when we move to the cloud that will be used as another factor in justifying our decision.

In terms of scalability, when I said "cloud," that was one of the things that we looked at when considering how we would grow, how we would expand. We are still evaluating. We do have some cloud storage, but we want to have one solution for that. We definitely think that with this product's features, we can go into the cloud and scale to whatever we like.

Technical support has been good so far. We had one issue up til now, but we are good. They took care of it.

We had legacy storage and my team recommended that we had to move to something new.

The initial setup was straightforward. We estimated, in the beginning, that we could do it over the weekend, and it went as we planned. We didn't see any issues.

We had an HPE consultant. Our experience was good.

We haven't evaluated ROI yet.

We had Dell EMC, as well as the company that was originally Sun Microsystems. We also had a couple of startups. We went with HPE mostly because of the familiarity and because my team recommended it because of its performance.

We like the flexibility. Anybody who is looking for a product that is easy to use and deploy, this is good.

I do need to evaluate the security aspect of it, especially intelligence to counter any unpredictable growth. I would also like to see how to use the storage space efficiently, because we do, at times, suddenly come across big videos.

We use Nimble for our virtualized workloads.

We have been using it close to three years. Therefore, it was even before the HPE acquisition of Nimble that we started using it.

It has been performing well so far. Initially, we purchased Nimble for low-end or less critical workloads, and it has started to evolve. Now, it is right up there with our Tier-Two storage for CO3 and CO4 level workloads.

We have lost that dependency with traditional data center architecture where you have your storage team and server team. Now, our virtual admins are able to take control of Nimble and know how to allocate the storage, whenever it is required, thus reducing time.

The most valuable feature is InfoSight, and the ability that InfoSight gives you, from insight within your environment to what is going on at the storage layer. Also, since we use this product integrated with VMware, we are able to have a view of our virtual infrastructure segregated up to the VM level. We are able to see where the most IOPS are located, etc. Therefore, we are able to prevent and predict where things are going well or badly.

The solution that I have is a hybrid, not a full flash. The hybrid version could be improved.

Stability has not been an issue at all. We have not had a major issue nor downtime which has occurred with Nimble. Whenever we have code updates, you have high availability between your controllers, which is good.

With scalability, we had to replace one of our controllers to upgrade CPU in cache. In the case of something like this, as long as the team is able to manage it within a scheduled downtime window, it is pretty simple.

Technical support is good. We recently use them. There was a bug on the latest firmware release. So, we had to call and see what was going on. There were some features that were enabled recently that were affecting read IOPS or how the way read IOPS are managed. It was simple fix. They just gave us what we needed to do and what we needed to change, then we applied the changes.

We were looking for something where the cost would not be as high as what we were used to with traditional storage arrays. Even so, it has been on par in terms of performance, even though the price was lower, with what we had with other arrays.

The initial setup was straightforward. The initial setup took a little bit over a week because we were in the learning phase. 

We have other arrays, like VNX or HDS from Hitachi. Complexity-wise, this product (Nimble) is simpler and nimbler to set up.

We recently implemented smaller Nimble boxes or arrays for an isolated environment, which was set up by me, within one or two days.

We have not quantified it. However, with the capabilities on compression, we have seen a lot of VMs running because probably 80 to 95 percent of the data is the same. Therefore, we are able to get a good compression ratio. Because of this, I think we have saved a lot compared to a traditional storage array.

We had also shortlisted EMC. We initially went with Nimble because of price, but later figured out the other benefits.

It is a good investment, especially on virtualized workloads. We have seen a lot of benefit there. We have not used it for other types of virtual workloads, both mixed workload applications and databases. 

We used HPE Nimble Storage for several purposes. Primarily, it served as our storage solution. 

Additionally, we employed it for disk-based backups. We also had a tape system in place and HPE Nimble Storage integrated seamlessly with our HPE Synergy infrastructure. 

I appreciate its batch capabilities, the capacity is important, and the DriveTape support. They offer hybrid support, which I like.

It could be more cost-effective. For customers with budget constraints, I recommend HPE Nimble Storage. That's one of the reasons I favor it.

The performance is good, but it can depend on the specific data or database. Typically, companies using HPE Nimble Storage fall within a certain range. Overall, that's a strong aspect of the solution.

HPE Nimble Storage's predictive analytics are adequate, but not exceptional.

I have been using it for a couple of months. But it has been in my company even before I joined. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. I had some issues. 

The customer service and support are good. 

The initial setup was straightforward. When we deployed it, we used HPE Synergy for computing and HPE Nimble Storage for cloud storage. 

We also integrated a backup server into the bundle. Once everything was connected, we were able to start using it.

In general, I would rate it a nine out of ten. I would recommend using it since it is HPE product. 

It's important to first determine your priorities. When deciding to use HPE Nimble Storage, consider whether you need an all-flash solution or a hybrid option. 

They offer both types, so you can choose based on your requirements. That flexibility is a key advantage for customers.e 

We have a primary data center, and then a secondary data center for our applications and our colo (colocation data center). Our financial and document management systems are on this platform.

This solution has given us reliability that is evident by the fact that it has been running for five years with virtually no hiccups.

InfoSight automatically predicted or resolved problems in your environment. It has given us insights with respect to our VM using more resources than we thought.

Our performance has increased by approximately ten to fifteen percent.

The most valuable features of this solution are the replication functionality and the snapshotting of the storage array.

InfoSight has been very useful because it gives me the ability to see what ones are actually working and how they’re functioning.

We use this for business-critical applications. Our financial and documentation management systems are on this platform.

An area that needs improvement is extending the life of the device after five years.

The solution is very good with respect to stability. The uptime is very good.

The scalability of this solution is moderate. 

Storage capacity efficiency is very fitting for our company and our usage.

Technical support for this solution is good.

We implemented this solution because our legacy applications needed a better solution than we already had. We used to use the HP LeftHand Storage Array. Our performance has increased by approximately ten to fifteen percent.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

We deployed this solution ourselves.

We have seen ROI, but I do not have specific data points.

Our options were IBM and HP, and we found that HP was the better choice for us.

Using this solution has shown us some of the things that are possible, and what we can better improve on in the future.

Nimble Storage is a solution that I would recommend to anybody who is in the same kind of space as I am.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Secondary storage and supplemental primary storage are our use cases. We use Nimble for business-critical applications such as accounting, our in-house EPS platforms.

The InfoSight platform and the reporting help us to identify network issues and compatibility problems.

All-flash also positions our company for growth. We've deployed 3PAR all-flash for our core applications and will not transition outside of flash from this point forward.

Nimble has increased performance with better IOPS evaluation, mixed-load capacity. Also, it improves throughput which means we've been able to transition off of remaining rack mounts onto Nimble plus virtualization structure, in a cost-effective manner.

• Reliability
• Performance
• Cost

The solution's uptime is fantastic. It's 100 percent. In addition, Nimble's storage capacity efficiency is very effective.

I'm very impressed with the stability of the solution.

We haven't had to scale beyond our initial purchase.

We have used tech support. Nimble's technical support is excellent.

We previously used Dell EMC. We went to Nimble because of space-growth requirements.

The initial setup was straightforward. The platform is fairly intuitive with standardized SCSI configuration and it was up and running. The product was very self-explanatory so we were able to move it into production very fast.

We had install assistance from HPE, but they would probably not be required for further installs. Our experience with HPE's assistance was good.

We've seen ROI in the retirement of obsolete platforms, the reduction of the licensing cost of outside products, and by collapsing of other storage platforms into a single platform.

We looked at 3PAR, Tintri, Pure, and more. We chose Nimble because it was an HPE acquisition and due to familiarity with Nimble products.

My advice is that you bring it onsite and evaluate InfoSight's reporting.

The biggest lesson we've learned from using Nimble is that it provides better insight with a single pane of glass.

It's feature-complete for what we are looking for. I rate it a ten out of ten. We've been very happy with Nimble.

The primary use case is production storage. We run ERP applications, as an example, of our business-critical applications.

There has been no downtime, which is probably the best thing.

We use InfoSight predictive analytics. It helps us from a performance perspective by identifying potential bottlenecks.

InfoSight has identified controller failures or performance issues.

Performance and support are its most valuable features.

The uptime has been solid.

The stability is excellent.

The scalability is good. We bought it in such a way that we could add disk to it, so we provided foresight into our purchase anyway.

The solution’s storage capacity efficiency is good. The new solution is doing deduplication now, as well as compression. The old solutions could only do compression, so it has been good that way.

All-flash positions our organization for growth. Our last solution did not.

The technical support is excellent. My team is extremely happy with Nimble Support and InfoSight.

We had performance issue on our previous solution (AF3000).

The initial setup was straightforward because we have a rep who we have dealt with for six to seven years.

We used a reseller, CDW, for the deployment. Our experience with CDW was good, but it was our Nimble HPE rep who really did the work.

The solution has doubled our performance, which is why we upgraded.

The solution has improved our throughput, keeping applications responsive.

It is a CAPEX investment. Over the anticipated lifespan, I would say the pricing is $10,000 a month.

The price has room for improvement.

Pure Storage and Nimble were on our shortlist. 

We chose Nimble because they were the incumbent. We had a good experience with them. They have good support. Ultimately, they had the better price.

We receive great support. We have had no unplanned downtime.

Our experience with the product has been excellent.

InfoSight, for sure, has been the best feature so far.

I really would like to see synchronous replication. This is something that when we have multiple arrays in our environment and being able to do something like a zero RPO. Being a law firm, we really want our data to be protected all the time. Although, we are really rocking the Nimble snapshots and you'll hear them talk about the maximum snapshots that you can have; there's no performance impact and it's just really cool to have that kind of data protection. We're utilizing it but getting further, so as to get the knob all the way down to zero RPO, that would be a really cool feature. I hear that they're working on it.

It has been incredibly stable. It has been so stable that when I started with the Nimble acquisition/purchase process for us, I was the senior storage engineer. However, after implementing Nimble Storage, I did a little bit of the setup, wrote the APIs for us to be able to work with it and then, I had nothing to do. So at the end of the year, when we're supposed to do our employer reviews and self-evaluations, I wrote this whole thing about why you don't need me anymore. Just told them, "Look, congratulations. You no longer need a dedicated storage engineer. Do what you want with that." They said, "Sure. We're going to promote you to become the senior manager of the network and infrastructure team." It's kind of a cool story, it is true.

We've already added another shelf just because we saw another need coming up. It was just so simple, i.e., literally plug and play and very laid back.

I've not worked with HPE support, only with Nimble support, which is right now separate and hopefully, it will stay that way.

Every time that I've worked with Nimble, I've had an absolutely excellent experience. Whether it be the automated, "Hey, we have solved this and already closed this ticket for you"; those are invaluable, i.e., 85% of the tickets are being closed just from InfoSight.

I'll give you an example where I saw the support really step-up, which was when we set up our DR solution. We're actually using DR from their Nimble Storage but it's not under our control. There's a little bit of a conversation that needs to happen and for whatever reason, that conversation wasn't working perfectly and I opened a ticket with Nimble Storage. That was the last thing I did. From then on, the technician who was working and looking at the auto-sups that were coming in. He was working with the other guy saying, "Okay, this is exactly what you need to fix or modify on your side. Let's try it again." I'm checking my email and then they're like, "Okay, we got it." That was it. It was literally a zero-touch fix for me.

We were using a different company before. There are actually several reasons why we decided to look at other vendors. One of which was that we had an unexpected outage with our older storage system for about 56 hours and it was significant enough that even though, we usually were loyal to that company we said, "Maybe we should start talking to other people." We brought in Nimble Storage as well as about three or four other vendors and we did a little bit of bake-off. We had conversations with the teams, asked for references and really when we started asking to put some of our workloads onto their appliance, that's when it really made a difference for us.

They gave us so many options of what we wanted to do. What had happened was because of the company that they were replacing, was one of those big iron-type companies, so they really wanted to just have a picture with their appliance next to ours. Nimble Storage came out and they racked everything for me; they plugged it in, they did all the setup and said, "Here it is. Here's your password. Go ahead and start carving out some volumes." Within probably an hour, I already had my first volumes already mapped and masked to the posts, all ready to go.

We do actually have a certain set of criteria that we use and it's a weighted criteria set. One of the top criteria, for us, is the relationship that you have with the vendor because everybody hopes that things are going to go right, but the real question is when things don't go right, is your team going to stand beside you? I have worked with the sales team and have said, "Hey guys! Is this pillow talk or is this an after-the-sale conversation? Are you still going to stand by me?" This is me, the customer, talking to the vendor.

They stood by me, more than did prior to the purchase. I get constant updates from them checking in, "Hey, do you want to talk about whatever?" I always feel well-prepared. We never had an incident where I really had to hit that red button, but I am 100% confident that if I did, then they would be standing there right probably in the room with me, making sure that I've got everything I need to get through this situation. This is a huge thing, i.e., being right there for us, which is reliability from an array perspective. It has got to have at least 5 nine's and that's just starting the conversation. We absolutely need the critical uptime and from there, there's also the price-point. For us, it's the vendor relationship, product reliability, and then, probably, the price-point while selecting a vendor.

It’s an excellent solution. The failure rates are minimal.

It’s easy to set up.

It's a very easy solution. Whenever I have a question, I find they have already provided a solution for it. For example, I want to sort out backups so that I offload some data off the Nimble since I don't want online to be clogged. They'll tell you we've got storage which is where you write your backup, which one is a partner where you can back up this information, get Veeam to store the backup, and then you can configure and send it to the storage if I want to run high availability.

They have really thought through their solution. They've covered everything.

Even their support is great. We have a support contract, so when there's an escalation on the system, you even see an email from them telling you that you have this issue. They do respond quickly and help you resolve your daily from the log. They’ll say: “This is the issue. Do this.” It's so easy to work with.

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.

I’ve been using the solution since 2019.

We have about 350 users on the solution currently. It's sitting in a data center.

It’s pretty simple to set up. It’s not overly complex or difficult. I’m still earning it. However, it looks simple.

The Nimble deployment took maybe two to three weeks. I'm sure there was even education from the team. It was new to the team. Obviously, to get that sorted, it took a while as it's like a new greenfield. You start from zero, and then with time, it comes together. Now, they’d likely do it in a quicker time as they know the solution.

The pricing is okay. However, it can be cheaper. Performance wise it is okay. If the price was better, it would mean there’s no reason for anyone to think of changing if they bought Nimble.

The cost depends on what components you want to include.

We are just a user.

I'm learning to understand it. I originally was not a support administrator, however, over time, found that it's actually straightforward. I'm looking forward to getting certified or trained in Nimble.

I would advise people to go for it. They just need to make sure that they understand the support around Nimble, in terms of them knowing how to support solutions. Obviously, you don't want every call that comes to you to have to phone Nimble to do it for you. You want to support everyone quickly and escalate issues only.

Also, ensure that you look out for the configuration or proposed architecture from Nimble in terms of the best implementation approach where you have the store ones and the other supporting components to get it right. Sometimes people rush to make it cheaper, however, then you eliminate certain key components that backup mechanisms.

So far, that solution is great. I'd rate it nine out of ten.