HPE StoreOnce Reviews

Our primary use case of this solution is for deduplication of the backup. We have a professional partnership with HPE and I'm a technical consultant. 

I am already well-versed with the solution and configuration of the product - it's been simplified over time which is great. I find the deduplication feature the most valuable. 

I'd like to see the cloud integration simplified. It would also be good if they could reduce the cost of the product. 

I've been using this solution for the past 10 years. 

It's a stable solution. 

The solution is scalable. 

The technical support of HPE is very, very, very good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

Everybody would like the cost to be minimized.

I would highly recommend this product. 

I rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

HPE StoreOnce was being used as our backup and recovery solution. The software we were using was HP NetBackup, which is Symantec NetBackup.

The IT infrastructure we back up consists of close to 20 servers includes database servers, a web email server, and a REST application. This is a tape backup solution.

We didn't like anything about this product. For example:

• It is not easy to restore data on the fly. The backup and restore processes are very complex.
• Backing up data is slow, as it is a tape backup system
• The web interface, ease of use, and GUI all need to be improved.
• It needs better integration with other products, such as the ability to store backups in the cloud or in Microsoft Azure.
• They lack reporting functionality. All of the reports are just CSV files and you have to compile your own reports. When you look at other backup solutions, they have reporting and alerting built-in. You can also create customized reports with them, but not with StoreOnce.

We were using HPE StoreOnce for almost three years.

The stability is not very good. It is not software-driven, but hardware-driven.

If you have a large enough storage capacity then you can take an ample amount of data. That's about it, in terms of scalability.

There are five or six people in the IT team who were using it.

The support from HPE is terrible.

Prior to using this product, we were using Microsoft Backup, as it is built into the operating system.

A reseller was used to assist with the deployment.

When it comes to deployment, maintenance, and support, it used to cost at least 20% of the price of the hardware. That is simply not feasible.

The cost of HPE StoreOnce is very expensive.

Of my friends, colleagues, and peers, I don't know anybody who is still using HPE StoreOnce. They are typically using software-driven backup solutions like Acronis. I would not recommend this product to anybody.

I would rate this solution a three out of ten.

We are the system integrators based in Qatar and this is one of the products that we provide to our customers as a backup solution. 

The primary use case is for data backup, mostly for virtualization infrastructure.

The most valuable features are the deduplication and compression capabilities. Also, in terms of performance and recovery, it has good capabilities.

It's a simplified product, more or less with plug-and-play capabilities. It has three flavors of integration being storage, NAS storage, and a backup system. These components are vital and with this product, it's like having three in one box.

It can be paired with the Veeam backup software.

Pricing could be reduced

The GUI and its user-friendliness have some room for improvement.

From a technical point of view, it's a stable solution.

HPE StoreOnce has the highest scalability in the market. It is very good compared to products such as Dell Data Domain.

I am satisfied with the technical support.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

Price-wise, it comes with a high price tag when compared to other products.

HPE has CloudBank capabilities. For example, it has 1.7 petabytes of CloudBank storage. For anyone who is looking for a long-term archive, as well as a backup solution, this is the ideal product. It comes with a three-year warranty and it's stable when it comes to base start-up solutions.

This solution offers both on-premises and public cloud deployments. If the customer needs on-premises backup then it is capable of that, or if the customer requires long-term retention, for example, five years, or for ten years, then they can keep the data in an archive system such as cloud backup or cloud volumes.

Overall, it's a very good product.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

It's an on-premise deployment and can be scalable to public cloud.

We are a financial organization and HPE StoreOnce backs up our data on a daily basis. Our entire infrastructure is running on HPE's main server and this backup solution was implemented as part of it.

In the financial industry, we have to retain backups for certain types of information for different periods of time. Some data is retained for three months, whereas other types of data are retained for five years.

The size of the backup data is very small, which is one of the features that we really like. Our data center grows between 20% and 30% each year and it is currently at 70 terabytes in size. We are now running a 40 terabyte backup, which is between 80% and 90% capacity. This size of the backup is really attractive.

The deduplication feature works well.

We did not find the accompanying software, Data Protector, very useful. Instead, we purchased a separate backup utility called Arcserve Backup.

One of the drawbacks of this product is that you cannot add another disk array when you reach capacity. Scaling is very costly because you have to buy a new box.

In the future, I would like to see built-in, hardware-level protection against ransomware attacks.

We have been working with HPE StoreOnce for between six and seven years.

We have not encountered any issues with it and I would say that it is quite stable. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.

We have just reached capacity and we are now trying to get a new box.

The support is quite good. If we have any issues then they will connect remotely to assist us. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The licensing fees are based on how much storage space is required.

This is a good product and I recommend it. However, I think that it is important to consider which backup software to use. If it does not support the capacity that the StoreOnce has then you will run into a problem.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is for backing up data in the production process.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to browse and get upgrades from the webpage. I can just go browse, then upgrade and update the firmware package. I manage StoreOnce from the OneView, which is an added advantage. The view of the portal is very good now.

From a centralized system, I can manage the interface, the backup policies, and the status of the database.

The new version is offering a cloud backup. It has keyboard data enclosed. It is also connected to the cloud storage.

In the next release, I would like to have a connection to the cloud.

The repository should have an extension to connect to the cloud and deposit the backups.

I would like to have it perform data deduplication on Azure through the WAN optimizer and some of the featured hardware.

This solution is stable to use. 

We have four people using this solution, three of them are system administrators and one is a solution architect.

Each license has its capacity. 

We are using it minimally, and we don't plan to increase our usage.

In terms of expanding, it depends on the type of license you have.

You have to purchase the license before you can add additional storage and space to expand.

We have not contacted technical support for the new version, but my experience with the previous versions, I would rate them an eight out of ten.

Overall I am satisfied with the technical support.

The initial setup was straightforward and simple.

The deployment was slow at first. The configurations process took several hours to complete.

The implementation was done through a consultant.

There are costs for additional storage and space.

This is a good product.

We are customers but we have partners for purchasing only.

I would recommend this product for its usage, the installation, the storage, and its management. It's easy to use compared to other products.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are an IT integration company and this is a solution that we sell to our customers.

This solution is used for backing up data related to both central customers and branch customers.

Our experience is with an on-premises deployment model.

The most valuable features of this solution are deduplication and compression.

This is a user-friendly solution.

I would like to see an emphasis placed on making data deduplication and compression more powerful.

This is a stable solution.

The is an easy solution to scale.

We have had experience with technical support for this solution. Normally, we will contact them to discuss compatibility with a customer's environment. The support for this solution is the best in our country.

The initial setup of this solution was complex because our customer's solution was complex. It consisted of a backup solution, a server, and storage, which together made for complex infrastructure. 

The deployment took approximately one month.

Two people are required to perform maintenance.

One of our engineers performed the deployment of this solution for our customer.

The solution that we suggest to our customers depends on their infrastructure. For example, if they have HP infrastructure then we propose HPE StoreOnce, but if they have a Dell Infrastructure then we might propose Dell EMC Data Domain. Normally, if they have a Microsoft Infrastructure then we propose this solution. These two solutions are similar in terms of pricing.

HPE does not have a backup solution because they sold it to Micro Focus. It would be better if they had all of the components including the server, storage, and backup.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for deduplication and replication. We occasionally also use it for disaster recovery.

The catalyst capabilities of the solution is the most valuable feature. Its capability is the best on the market. We tell our customers specifically about this feature. 

The interface is very user-friendly.

The solution's pricing could be improved. 

The solution is quite stable.

Technical support has been great. They are the best in the market. They're very responsive.

The initial setup was not complex. It was very, very easy. Deployment takes less than an hour. You just need one qualified person to handle it.

We are using the hybrid cloud deployment model. We use the Azure platform.

I would recommend the solution. They have a very good reputation. I would rate it eight out of ten.

We are a partner and reseller for HP products, and we integrate various solutions for our customers. One of the areas that I work with is implementing storage solutions, and this is one of the products that my customers use.

This solution is used to emulate data relief for an MSL4048 and is deployed on-premises.

The solution would be improved if it could also be used as a data store for VMware. Not only as a backup repository but as an archiving data store for VMware.

We have implemented this solution for a number of customers, and they are happy with the stability.

There are several models of this device, and we have supplied our customers based on their requirements. Up to this point, they are still using the same models and we have not had to assist anyone with scaling this solution.

As far as HPE support is concerned, I don't have any issues with them. For the most part, I am coordinating with them. We normally handle the support for our customers or contact HPE support on their behalf.

The initial setup of this solution is quite easy for me. The implementation is straightforward.

The setup and configuration will only take about half a day, but the testing will take a little more time. You have to monitor the performance of the disk and the emulated data. In total, it will take perhaps two days to complete everything, including a backup and restore.

For anybody looking for a robust backup solution that emulates a tape library, this is the product that they should go for. The only thing is that they cannot remove the data because it is appliance-based. They cannot, for example, manually remove the tape and bring it to another location. They would need to use replication for this.

This product is not perfect, but I am quite satisfied with it.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for backup storage.

Nine years ago, we were relying on backup tapes only. Now, since we've moved to StoreOnce, as per the legal and compliance perspective we still have to use tapes, but we have reduced usage a lot. We don't have to transfer the tapes from one side to another side. That task has been reduced because we have StoreOnce in two locations, and we take backup on one appliance, and that appliance is replicated to the other side. The backup and restore speed is very fast, compared to tape. There is less administrative work. 

The speed and deduplication ratio are two of the most valuable features of the solution.

I'm using this product to save some files. It has a feature where I can make it as an SMB share. When I started using it for CIFS, the SMB share, had a limitation of 1,000,005 only. Considering 1,000,000 objects are in one share, it's too limiting.

The appliance doesn't have global deduplication, it has StoreOnce deduplication. It does not deduplicate across the appliance, it will deduplicate in one particular store. With global deduplication, I could store more data.

This appliance currently doesn't have SSD drives. I'm not sure if new models include them, but I believe if they can include NVMe or SSD drives as a cache device, they can increase the backup speed a lot and that can help with the global deduplication.

One of the reasons to not enable global deduplication was to not impact the backup and restore speed, but I believe if they include a cache device like NVMe or SSDs, then the drawback of enabling global deduplication can be removed. 

The solution is very stable. After nine years, I have yet to have a problem.

Scalability is good. When we bought the current model, 6500, we bought around 200 TB of capacity, and we are using more than three TB of data. In terms of scalability, we can go from 200 TB to 400 TB to 600 TB, or more. They also provide cloud banks, but I don't think we will be requiring that amount of storage in the future. Because of deduplication, we don't have to add so much physical capacity. Even if I add 32 TB or whatever the minimum capacity is, it can still hold lots of terabytes of data.

We have 1,300 users and three admin who are maintaining the solution. We use the solution every day to run backups.

Technical support is very good.

We didn't have another solution previously, in terms of backup storage, but in terms of software, I have used some other products like Windows deduplication. This solution, however, offers reliability and stability.

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took less than one hour. We have three admins, but I am the primary admin, so you only need one person for maintenance.

An HP consultant came to assist with deployment.  Deployment assistance comes with it when you buy the solution. Our experience with the deployment consultant was good.

The license is part of the hardware. You don't need to buy or renew it separately.

StoreOnce comes in a package: hardware and software. All the licenses come with it. Software licenses for backup solutions like Data Protector you do have to purchase separately, but in terms of the backup appliance, it comes with all the features and the license as part of it. You have to only purchase the application license but that is very cheap.

We did evaluate Data Domain from EMC, but I didn't like it because Data Domain has other limitations. In terms of density per rack, it was using more rack capacity. Also, they were selling three different products, so it was adding too much complexity. I decided to go with StoreOnce.

We are using the private cloud deployment model.

If you purchase the product, you will have peace of mind. You don't have to worry about the product at all. My only advice is, get it installed by an HP consultant, not by a third-party or partner, because the HP team will give you the correct advice before implementing. I strongly recommend going through the HP publishing best practices guide, for each and every hardware they have released as well. StoreOnce also has a best practices guide from HP. It will be a 10-20 page document. Go through it, and it will really help you to architect or design the solution prior to implementing it.

I would rate the solution 8.5 out of ten.

We use this as a backup solution in conjunction with Veeam Availability Suite.

This solution has allowed us to feel confident in that we have a mechanism for the full recovery of service, and not only our data.

The deduplication feature in this product is amazing.

This product would be improved with the inclusion of more features to security or WORM.