HPE StoreOnce Reviews

It's cost effective, technologically advanced, and very scalable. It integrates with the rest of the HPE infrastructure, like 3PAR, for example.

From a business point of view, it enables us to pay closer attention to our caps and our competitive cost level.

Because it integrates with other HPE systems, it is easier for us to manage compared to the system we had before.

I would mostly want to see some technical improvements in some very specific areas. For example, a feature that is missing, compared to the competition, is the ability to globally duplicate all systems.

EMC Data Domain can deduplicate globally among all volumes, whereas HPE StoreOnce's deduplication is per single volume. Thus, it is a little less efficient, if you have several volumes.

So far, it looks quite stable.

Scalability is very good.

We get technical support from our partner and also from HPE personnel. The support is very good.

The previous system reached its end of life and it was becoming obsolete. It was no longer performing enough for the company. Business is flowing, fortunately; so we needed a faster and more scalable solution. The switch to HPE StoreOnce was a planned investment.

I would say the initial setup was straightforward, but I was not involved from an operational perspective. I am involved in that I am responsible for the teams; so I was involved in setting the objectives and I was informed of the key facts. I’m not the one who strokes the keyboard.

We actually work with HPE a lot, but also with Dell EMC. For now, we balance the distribution 50/50. There's some good in both vendors.

My advice to colleagues is to deeply explore the features of StoreOnce because they have improved in the last year. StoreOnce is not the market leader. The market leader now is without any doubt EMC Data Domain. Try not to just look at the market numbers, but also at the technology of the product. Give StoreOnce a try. Try the product before deciding to buy it.

The most important criteria when we choose a vendor is the technology. We are very technically oriented, so first we compare products in terms of technological level. By technology, I mean features, performance, and integration with other vendor solutions.

We put cost effectiveness a little lower in our evaluation. Price is obvious, but it is not the main thing for us.

The partnership with the vendor is very important. The partner must have strong competence in what they are selling to us. It is obviously very important to have a skilled and certified partner that helps you implement the product. This restricts the circle of possible vendors and partners to very few.

It was primarily about the deduplication technology, and that's what brought it in the door for us. We were looking for something to offset our backup procedures so that we would be able to get better backup times, but also better restore time-frames for our backups.

The D2D capabilities have speeded backups.

The issues that I have aren't with the hardware itself. It's with our backup solution, it's with some of the other things that interact with StoreOnce, and it may be environmental. I don't see any deficiencies in the hardware solutions there.

We are on our third generation of devices. Its been around 5 years.

Early on, the firmware had some issues, but it has been steadily improved by HPE.

It's very stable.

StoreOnce scaling has been good. We've done a couple of field upgrades, we've had three different generations, actually we're down to two now, we retired one of the out already. But we've done a field upgrade of both of those which went really well. As far as the top end capabilities, we're not there. Both of our current generations still have headroom for growth.

7/10 - it can be hit or miss. We get better luck with our premium support levels. We have a named TAM for some of our systems, that works out well. Escalation managers are always good. There is good technical talent, it's just sometimes hidden by first level support. That can be difficult and frustrating at times, but over ten years working with them, I would say today it's probably a little better than when I first started. Actually, I would say it's probably improved a good bit since I first started working with them, but it's still got some room to go.

I wasn't heavily involved with the deployment. There is a little bit of learning curve to StoreOnce, and how it lays out, and different features within it. We had some consulting services when we first set it up, and I don't think we had the best advice, which led to a reconfiguration down the road.

License Catalyst. It is really the best performing interface for StoreOnce - so ensure whatever backup solution you are looking at has native Catalyst support to see the best results with the product. While it has VTL, CIFS and NFS capabilities, the best way to use it is with the Catalyst protocol.

I don't think it has anything much to do with the StoreOnce solution from a hardware perspective. That seems to be really solid, but you've got to have a Symantec NetBackup, HPE Data Protector, or Veeam to really enable you to get the most out of these products. Your mileage may vary based on your backup vendor, and how well they support the hardware. Veeam probably provides the best user experience from the software side - and the software side is extremely important to the solution.

We use the product for data backup purposes.

The platform's most valuable feature is Catalyst software. It helps with efficient source deduplication.

They could provide more options for storage capacity. At the moment, they only have an 80-terabyte storage facility. There should be availability of lesser capacities at lower prices. Additionally, they should integrate it with cybersecurity products.

We have been using HPE StoreOnce for ten years.

I rate the platform's stability a nine out of ten.

The platform is suitable for enterprise companies. I rate the scalability a seven out of ten.

They could improve the technical support services in terms of quality.

Positive

We have used Dell EMC Data Domain before. In comparison, HPE StoreOnce has an excellent support service.

The initial setup process is simple.

I rate the platform's pricing a seven out of ten.

HPE StoreOnce optimizes the backup and recovery process through its efficient software, notably the Catalyst software, in terms of speed. The integration of StoreOnce with external software, such as Veeam, further contributes to optimizing backup and recovery.

It is a scalable platform. We can add extensive units and storage capacity. However, it is quite expensive. I rate the ease of management and integration of HPE StoreOnce an eight out of ten.

Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten. It could be compatible with different systems.

The most valuable features of HPE StoreOnce are the single storage, disaster recovery, and configuration. Additionally, the feature to connect two stages together is useful.

I have been using HPE StoreOnce for approximately 10 years.

HPE StoreOnce works well, it is stable.

The scalability of HPE StoreOnce is excellent.

I am the only one using this solution in my organization. 

It is difficult to solve issues with this solution remotely. I prefer to use the knowledge base platforms. The response time could improve.

I have not used other solutions prior to HPE StoreOnce.

The initial setup of HPE StoreOnce is easy and the configuration is quick. It took 30 minutes to implement.

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate HPE StoreOnce a nine out of ten.

The most valuable features for us are the ease of use, the reliability, and the exceptional deduplication that we get across that data that we store on those devices.

We use it primarily for storage of backup data. We need to keep large numbers of historical backups and they typically repeat. It's a lot of data that is the same, but has to be kept for the purposes of historical reasons. You have to go back to points in time and storing the data on standard disks is wasteful and inefficient.

We needed a deduplication of parts. We've tried a number of different options and we settled on StoreOnce's being the most efficient and the fastest technology that met the price point that we were looking for.

In the service provider business, we are competing with a large number of other organizations and a lot of the time price is what matters to customers. We need to be competitive. We need to be able to provide a service at a price point that meets market expectation and this is a particular consideration in what we were looking for. The deduplication storage appliances and StoreOnce in particular does that by allowing us to provide lower price cloud storage for customer data

We would like to see some improvements in the Veeam Backup & Replication integration. It's good, but it has a lot of room to improve. In particular around the inability to easily move data between StoreOnce appliances. Also, there are some limitations around how it can be implemented for Cloud Connect repository storage. We currently have to use SMB Shares rather than proper Catalyst integration.  It's an interesting scenario, because Veeam tell us that it's the way HPE's StoreOnce Catalyst integration works and of course, HPE are saying that it's Veeam who have to work with us on this. We are hoping that they will get together and come up with a good solution and vision, too.

We have been using HPE StoreOnce appliances for just over two years now.

We've had failed disks but we've not lost any data and HPE's support has been very good. We did have some difficulty with the phone home functionality originally. Oddly enough, in one case, a firmware update fixed that for one of the devices. Overall, we found them to be very reliable.

I think it's interesting. The first one we did, we paid for HPE to install it, so they went through the whole setup process and everything else. I suspect that's probably why they normally get you to pay for it, because we did it ourselves from the second one and it was fine. It's not simple. It's not the click and point; it's command line. It's more technical; it's not a simple process, not like their wizards that you get with most of their products.

To be honest, we were quite happy with the price, but we always want things cheaper than they are. I think for what we got, we felt that the price was quite reasonable comparing it to other products that provide that same level of functionality; it was priced quite well in the market. We are looking for larger StoreOnce deployments for other requirements at the moment. Again, we are finding the price point quite attractive.

From that point of view, no problem at all. I'm just trying to think from a licensing point of view, they do seem to like charging for every little component. If you want to put a 10Gb adapter in there, there is a license charge for that. If you want to put in a fiber channel adapter, there is a license charge for that. On the whole, it hasn't been a limiting factor for us at all.

We looked at EMC Data Domain. We looked at Microsoft Storage Server on a number of different appliances, including an HPE option there. We found with Windows Storage Server, the performance wasn't there. It just didn't meet our requirements. We use Veeam backup and replication, and the integration that StoreOnce provides works really well. We have a very strong relationship with HPE and in the end they kind of swayed us.

I wouldn't want to say it's perfect because there is room to improve, but for what we are using it for, we are finding it does the job really well.

From a data point of view, you've got to be confident that the data you're storing is going to be deduplicable. Otherwise, you're not going to get any savings. If you're storing prededuplicated data, highly compressed data, data that doesn't repeat, you just wasted money on expensive disks, because you're paying a premium for the benefit of the data to be deduplicated.

You obviously want to be sure that the data that you're putting there is going to compress very well. We knew that was the case, so it was a no-brainer for us. I think we got a bit more deduplication than we were expecting, which is always wonderful. It doesn't always happen that way.

The most valuable feature would be the high deduplication ratios, capable of 20 or more to 1 dedup ratio in a real-world backup environment. It seems to work very good for long retention times, even if there is little use, but sometimes you have to do it due to legal reasons, and that is where it shines.

In my previous organization, it removed the need for manual tape swapping. Hence, it removed the need for actual tape changers to be at 50 separate remote sites, leading to huge savings for the company.

Also, offsite tape storage is replaced by replication to a different/central site/device such as StoreOnce B6200/B6500 or even some lower-end one, such as 4900.

I would like to see them add the ability to turn on/turn off global deduplication and etc.

Currently, only VTL-level deduplication is supported properly, while there seems to be some part of global deduplication working. However, in some rare cases, I saw data being removed on untouched VTL while you were deleting some particular cartridge within a separate VTL. It has probably been fixed by the most recent StoreOnce OS upgrades.

I have been using it for 4+ years.

I have not encountered any deployment issues.

Some models are shipped with one power supply by default, even when redundant PSUs are supported in pairs; be aware of that.

As long as the architecture was done correctly, I did not encounter any scalability issues. If an entry-level StoreOnce device is placed on a “soon to grow“ site, that is a planning mistake, not a scalability issue.

Customer service is great.

Technical support is great.

We switched because of company policy, the tapes aged, etc.

Initial setup was straightforward.

I was within support team, which did implement as well as support the solution.

Huge. Simply eliminating the need for tape changers returned the cost of the hardware within less than half a year.

Get an expert who knows the products, so you can get the best prices possible for both DP and StoreOnce. Because there are some things that can work for the same solution in different ways, hence they are differently licensed as well as priced.

Make sure architecture is planning properly, e.g., centralised or decentralised HPE DP Cell Managers give you some quite different options and etc.

I use HPE StoreOnce in my company as a backup tool for our personal data.

My company works with HPE and Dell. Recently, we moved from Dell to HPE. In our company, we used Dell to make use of the performance of Dell Data Domain Boost, after which we moved to HPE StoreOnce.

The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of configuration.

The user interface of HPE StoreOnce is an area of concern where improvements are required. The UI of HPE StoreOnce provides users with a lot of information, but its users find it difficult to use. Instead of the user interface providing users with a lot of information, it should be made easier for users.

I would like HPE StoreOnce the ability to do more compression, but it may change the compression and deduplication, which is not good.

I have been using HPE StoreOnce for four or five years. I use HPE StoreOnce Version 3.4.0.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

In terms of ROI, I would say that I was not satisfied with the product's performance since we faced a few problems with it in our company. I feel it doesn't work well, and it takes time when the recovery aspect is involved.

The product is not expensive. It is available at a good price.

The capabilities of HPE StoreOnce are not good, especially when compared to its competitors like Dell Data Domain Boost and SolarWinds.

HPE StoreOnce is an easy-to-use tool.

People should use HPE StoreOnce as a secondary backup tool.

I rate the overall tool a four out of ten.

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.