HPE StoreOnce Reviews

Its catalyst store and deduplication are valuable as it saves disc space. I'm not sure what the ratio is, to be fair, but it's significant. It's something silly like 240 terabytes if they were all expanded and it's occupying something like 20 terabytes, or something like that.

We haven't had the need to use reporting, but we've still got capacity and don't need to dive in. At some point we'll start reaching capacity, and we'll need to start drilling down a bit more into what it's doing.

We brought it in to transfer all of the services that were old and creaky onto a single platform. So we back up all of our VMs and all of our SQL boxes to it.

If it could do scheduling, then perhaps I wouldn't need to have Data Protector as a backup product. Data Protector is a software layer that schedules every night into the VMware layer and says, "Back these VMs up to the StoreOnce device." And it goes through the Catalyst stores and does all the kind of stuff that StoreOnce does. If StoreOnce could initiate the backup itself by a scheduling mechanism, then potentially we wouldn't need to have Data Protector do it, which would take something out of the chain for me. There's no problem with Data Protector, it's just something else. If I can keep it down to hardware and not have to go through a software layer, I think I'd get better performance.

We brought it in a part of a whole HP infrastructure about 18 months ago.

We've had no issues deploying it.

We've never had an issue with stability.

We've got four trays of discs, and I think we can add another X number of trays, so it's not going to be endlessly scalable, but it's going to be scalable up to X.

We had blades, 3PAR, and some fabric switches. We looked at a way to consolidate all of our backups. So, we had technology like Tivoli and CSN, and we had other little bits of backup, and we thought we'd go for a single product. As a part of the transformation, we brought in Data Protector, and that basically backs itself off to the StoreOnce.

We consider HP, and the pricing we get is good and reflects that. If it was an open marketplace, we'd look at anything and everything because we'd evaluate the marketplace for cheap D-to-D devices.

We use it to present virtual tape live-link to our NetApp so that we can backup our NetApp for NDMP to our StoreOnce. So virtual tapes are the concepts of a physical set of tapes. Imagine you've virtualized it, and you have to give it a size on disc, which because it's a virtual tape, it doesn't have to have the same constraints as a physical tape of four terabytes. A virtual tape can be X terabytes. We originally put them in and sized them too small. And when I had to go back, and we had something like 400 tapes. I had to edit each tape and increase its capacity so that we got better value out if it. I wish I could have just Shift-Select-Edit and changed it, which I couldn't do. So some level of automating that task cause you can imagine, going through 400 tapes is a lot of work. It can happen, and we didn't know at the time, and lesson learned. If we put another StoreOnce in with more BTLs, we'd know perfectly to set that size to be higher from the start. So, the advice would be if you're using BTLs, set them to your preferred maximum because you might not be able to batch.

Daily onsite backup, rapid data restore and reliable off site disaster recovery. HP deduplication technology can reduce the amount of backup data you need to store by up to 95 per cent and can deliver backup speeds of up to 100TB/hr.

• It’s less mechanical so it’s writing to hard drives and we’ve had no problems with it whatsoever during the year we’ve been using it. It’s saved us so much time as well because we don’t have to troubleshoot the migrations every day. We know that those migrations are going to happen and that’s taken a weight off a lot of peoples’ minds, particularly those running our out of hours services.
• We were creating so much data that even with two huge libraries and over 100 tapes, it only had the capacity to keep backups for three weeks. With deduplication on the virtual tape library it’s now achieving a compression ratio of 16:1 which means it can keep the backups for six months.
• Deduplication also reduces the number of disks required which reduces space, energy and cooling costs.
• Since the staged back-up happens in the background there is no impact on the network so back-up times are not an issue. However, even with the added work of deduplication, StoreOnce is delivering a transfer rate of up to 7GB/min.

Since the staged back-up happens in the background there is no impact on the network.

Came with two additional enclosures to put the drives in and you can add another one. We ordered the additional enclosure, it arrived, we racked it up, connected it into the VTL and ran a command to say ‘recognise this enclosure - expand to this enclosure’ and it just did it. You don’t lose anything because the data that is on the existing enclosures just spreads out across the new enclosure.

HP offered as much or as little support as we required so we did the implementation ourselves. It was checked over by an HP engineer and signed off in two weeks. HP provides support with a nine to five next business day callout. HP comes to visit us and we have conference calls, presentations and demonstrations. That is the kind of interaction we’re getting.

HP provided a Webinar overview of the virtual tape library, gave us access to HP Labs and also sent in two technical specialists to talk through the product, demonstrate it and answer all our questions. However, what swung the deal for us was that we were able to have the kit on loan for up to three months. If you don’t like it HP come and remove the kit. If you do like it you just pay for it and keep it. That was brilliant because I didn’t want to go through the process of buying something and then find it didn’t operate in the way we wanted or was incompatible with certain backup software.

Our storage infrastructure was founded on an HP StorageWorks EVA 4400 disk array and when demand increased, a further EVA 6550 array was added.

It integrates very well with our backup software. Creating a new VTL is very easy. You just go into the system and create the new library saying what kind of emulation you want, how many drives and how many tape cartridges and it creates it. It has a whole range of emulation types and most backup software will support one of the emulations that StoreOnce will use.

We did the implementation ourselves.

We have not so far computed the amount of money saved but efficiency and service standards have certainly increased. Previously, if someone lost a file it could take 10 minutes to locate and load the appropriate tape. Now, the restore time is around five seconds.

Compression of storage. Based on the amount of history that we've got to keep, it limits the amount of storage that we have to purchase.

It's more of a backup functionality. Backup really doesn't make a business do any better or any worse. It's really just storage of data. It's not a user interactive type process. They all go through and store data fine and they all go through and restore data fine. Is there really any business advantage of StoreOnce over some of the other vendors? Not really. It's just that we chose to work more with one vendor, so we get a better cost when we actually purchase stuff.

The beef I have not only with StoreOnce, but also all the Ops Bridge, the people who will be managing these things are going to be more your system administrators. They're not Java programmers. They want to try to do all the API's where people have to know Java to interface with them.

Whereas system administrators, they want to script stuff and so they're starting to turn a lot of their API's into command lines, which are wrappers around the Java API's. Lack of foresight of that is probably one of my biggest irks with HP on that.

I have no data on it as it's too soon in our use.

We've used NetBackup, then there's been some home-grown ones that people have done. StoreOnce is a backup solution with Data Protector in DDD and streaming through offsite storage. It works just fine. The big thing again, we come down to, is by having those products primarily with one vendor, we get a much better cost point.

We had no issues deploying it.

It works well with Data Protector. It works well with 3PAR and that's our environment and so it's a vendor specified solution.

It performs pretty well with minimal to no issues.

It has allowed us greater storage with a reduced footprint. It also works well with our servers – including our Dell servers. It was important that we have an integrated environment.

We had some initial driver issues, but I think the newer release has changed all that. The one issue I have is the maintenance package – it's very expensive. If I were to renew it, it would remain expensive and not cost effective. The initial proposal was inconsistent with what I found in terms of maintenance and renewal costs. A break/fix-type package would be better.

I've used it for four years.

It is pretty stable; excellent, in fact. I had one very minimal hard-drive failure.

We recently added more and it went very well. It's easy to add to this product.

8/10 for both. Issues were dealt with quickly and efficiently.

We were previously using a different solution but our storage needs grew and we decided we needed a new solution.

It was straightforward.

We had an HP engineer come in for implementation. He was excellent.

Dell and IBM. We chose HP because of the price and the vendor support.

The two things that we looked at were performance and cost.

This particular product is stable, and the support has been good. If you want a reliable and reasonably-priced product, I would recommend it.

The ease of use and configuration once implemented and the deduplication features.

Before the StoreOnce solution was implemented all kinds of backup solutions and software were being used in this international company, making it very difficult to manage, keep control over the backups, losing data left and right, very unprofessional.

Also a lot of tapes needed to be kept offside, using one of these companies that comes and collects tapes to store in a secure location, this costs the company a lot of money.

Now several StoreOnce appliances sync with each other to take care of the disaster recovery compliancy, remote offices stream deduplicated backup data to the StoreOnce and use the same backup software as all other locations.

The initial installation and configuration into the network and the integration into the infrastructure needs some improvement, but it's not too difficult if you plan right.

For well over 1 year now.

The deployment of the solution is done by HP, they insisted on it, the initial planning was the task of the client, there were some bumps along the road, but in the end it was deployed rather quickly.

No issues during initial config, can't say there were any stability issues.

The scalability is something you need to plan for ahead, the amount of TB you're looking to backup now and how much it would grow in the future. Depending on the outcome of your calculation you need to choose the model accordingly (the higher models allow for more scalability - read higher amount of TB that can be stored).

No issues with customer service, quick and correct.

They could answer all our questions and helped us to get going without too much time and effort.

Previously it was a bunch of solutions (backup to disk, to tape, etc) and all kinds of different backup software dispersed over different locations, very unmanageable and lots of issues with backup. It needed to be consolidated and in the meantime it needed to provide the necessary Disaster Recovery abilities. That's why this solution was chosen.

Initial setup was done along with HP, it wasn't overly complex if you know something about backup and the software solution to go along with it, if you have to start from scratch it can be quite the task, it isn't plug and play, there is quite some configuration to be done, you also need to know your backup environments in and out, plan ahead. You need to know what goes where and how it will be replicated.

As mentioned earlier, the solution was implemented along with HP, their level of expertise was above par.

Too soon to tell, but initial reports tell us it definitely will save us a lot of money, on tapes and tape handling alone.

Yes, some other solutions came across our desk, but I can't remember which ones though. Pretty early on we chose to go with HP StoreOnce.

Read up on the solution, there are a lot of advantages in this product, all depends on your environment, if you are one of those companies that has a lot of tapes and different locations, it could definitely be something for you. The deduplication is great on this solution, no more TB's of wasted space, send deduplicated backup data over those expensive leased lines saving bandwidth, and so on...

We use the product for backups in the manufacturing industry. 

HPE StoreOnce is particularly useful in situations where organizations require a backup solution to store their data. Its deduplication feature is quite impressive, providing a deduplication ratio of around 25 to 26. 

The tool is easy, quick, and reliable. 

HPE StoreOnce needs to provide a SaaS solution by offering high-density disks. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten.

The tool is a scalable solution, and it often works with Data Protector, a software that initiates the backup process. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

The solution's support is responsive and quick. 

Positive

I rate the tool's deployment a ten out of ten. 

HPE StoreOnce is simple, scalable, and stable. I rate it a ten 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 implement the full data centre - from A-Z. Our clients typically use the solution as a backup data destination.

The most valuable aspect of the solution is the catalyst feature. It can integrate with various other backup solutions. also HPE introduced the cloud bank that can provide cloud storage for your data. 

The solution should continue to refine its integration capabilities. I also see they are starting to use cloud integration as well, which is good, but they should do more to integrate with it.

I've been selling the solution for five years now.

The solution is very stable.

catalyst integration can give you unmatchable performance.

Technical support is good. If it's not good we make it good because we, as a partner, offer technical support ourselves.

Most of our customers are switching from other backup solutions. Many have switched, for example, from EMC Data Domain. It was the most popular in our country at one time but many people are moving to StoreOnce.

The initial setup is one of the most user-friendly B2B user solutions. It's good, it's easy. Deployment usually takes less than one day. You only need one person for deployment and maintenance.

We mainly work with the on-premises deployment model. We're an HPE partner.

I would advise new users to check the integration if they already have a data solution in place.

I would rate the solution ten out of ten.