NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Reviews

We use the full suite of ONTAP use cases across both on-premises and cloud environments, covering various applications and scenarios.

The primary reason for our continued loyalty to NetApp is their Snap technology, which is widely recognized as the main factor. It offers ease of use and a comprehensive suite of applications, including features like SnapMirror, SnapVault, and unified snapshot management, all bundled into a single product. With just three individuals, we're able to efficiently manage petabytes of data, which significantly reduces our operational costs.

My main concern with ONTAP is the rapid pace of technological advancements. For instance, NetApp introduced features that I'm still trying to find a solution for, specifically in the realm of cloud file storage services and infrastructure. There is currently no direct cloud integration, and you need to establish connections through Active Directory or access data via SIPs or NFS mounts. It would be fantastic if NetApp could offer a solution that's as user-friendly as Google Drive for seamless cloud storage integration.

I have been using it for twenty two years.

Its ability to detect ransomware or external threats has been highly effective. While we haven't experienced any actual ransomware attacks, we have encountered threats. These threats are promptly addressed by our vigilant security team before they can infiltrate our environment. The stability has significantly improved over time. In the past, there were challenges, but now it's much more reliable. It simplifies our workflow, eliminating the need to navigate through various steps on our desktop.

Regarding scalability, it performs admirably. I haven't encountered any issues with its ability to scale. However, it's worth noting that NetApp faces stiff competition in the realm of private channel solutions.

The support services have undergone significant changes over time. While they were excellent during the initial phase, the experience has become challenging lately. The positive aspect is that I have a long history of working with NetApp, so I possess in-depth knowledge, but for new team members or peers, it's quite a struggle to work with support. When you call in, you often start at the first level, but most of our issues require third-level assistance, which means navigating through the first and second levels before reaching someone who can effectively address the problem. This process can be frustrating and time-consuming.

The complexity of the initial setup varies depending on the individual handling it. If I'm the one setting it up, it's relatively straightforward as I have extensive experience working with it.

The current process is quite straightforward. However, I believe there is room for improvement, particularly when it comes to migrating non-NetApp data to ONTAP or the cloud. While there are some existing tools, they don't offer the robustness required for seamless migration of third-party data to ONTAP.The integration with AWS native services, like DataSync and backup, is actually quite impressive. We've tested it, and while it's a good product, regrettably, we currently don't have a need for it.

The cost is quite high.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We rely on NetApp Coud Volumes ONTAP for a wide range of purposes, including VMware, SQL, Oracle, and file storage. It serves as our go-to storage solution for almost every use case.

The transition to the AFF storage solution significantly improved our organization by reducing our physical footprint. We went from a FAS system with two controllers and twenty drive shelves to just four controllers and two drive shelves with the AFF. This led to substantial reductions in power consumption and space requirements in our data center.

The most valuable feature is its exceptional performance and storage efficiency. This efficiency translates to significant cost savings for us.

There is room for improvement in tier one support, especially with potential language barriers and communication challenges.

I have been using it for ten years.

We've experienced a few minor issues with stability, but we haven't encountered any significant outages.

Scalability has been a trouble-free experience. When we decided to increase our storage capacity by incorporating an additional drive shelf, the engineer collaborated with us, and the expansion process was executed smoothly, ensuring there was no downtime or interference with our production operations.

We rarely encounter performance issues, and we prefer to handle most of our troubleshooting internally. Our experience with tier-one support from NetApp has been somewhat lacking, and it varies depending on the support representative. We aim to resolve issues ourselves whenever possible, despite paying for support. On an overall scale of one to ten, I would rate the support as average.

Neutral

Over the years, we've tried various storage solutions like Nessus, Nimble, and IBM. However, about a year ago, we made the switch to NetApp, and we've been quite satisfied with their performance and have remained loyal to their products ever since.

The initial setup has been quite straightforward.

Cost reduction has been a significant benefit. We've been able to lower our expenses by minimizing the number of devices and drive shelves needed. Instead of having twenty drive shelves, we now only require two. This reduction in hardware has had a positive impact on power consumption, cooling, and maintenance costs, leading to overall cost savings.

We find the pricing to be favorable due to the educational sector we belong to.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use CVO for NFS data storage, NFS sharing, and SMP sharing.

CVO helped us migrate to the cloud. We were already using the same software on-prem. We just migrated it to the cloud, so it helped us with that. 

The workload migration was outstanding. It was seamless. We have on-premise CVO within BlueXP. We just drag and drop the on-premise workload to the cloud workload. It just migrated and cut over. That was it. The time required depends on the volume size. Our largest volume took us three-and-a-half weeks. It takes some time to migrate the data from on-prem to the cloud. 

We have on-prem NetApp AFF, and we're looking into using NetApp Data Sense or Blue XP Data Sense for the backup servers as well. Everything integrates perfectly. We have some on-prem workloads that run on NetApp, and CVO on a cloud. We can migrate between the two if needed.

Snapshots are one valuable feature within ONTAP, but CVO's appeal is that it acts just like the on-prem solution. It's the same OS, but in the cloud. We can continue to use ONTAP as we did on-premise. 

I would want more visibility and data analytics where we can see anomalies within the shares within the GUI.

I have used CVO for four years.

CVO is highly stable, and the performance has met our expectations. It does exactly what it needs to do.

Scaling CVO is straightforward. It's super easy to grow the cloud environment compared to the on-prem solution. It's easier to scale.

I've had no issues with NetApp support so far. It's been excellent.

We had the on-premise version of ONTAP. We also have a Nutanix array for our hypervisor. 

I've set up four NetApp CVOs. They all took around five minutes to set up. It's super easy.

The licensing is good. They make it easy for you. You go to the sizing site. It's a bar that you drag and drop.

I rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP nine out of 10. If you're a fan of the on-prem version, you'll like CVO on the cloud. 

Companies that want to move to the cloud want to have a DR in the cloud. However, moving a file share is very tough and requires a lot of work from scratch. If you have NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and if you have an on-premises storage scenario, it's very easy to replicate the workload from the cloud using the native application tool. You don't need to reengineer everything. It's very useful, and efficient.

If you use deduplication and compression on-premises, you will be able to do the same on the cloud. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP also helps save money in terms of file shares and storage. For example, if you have 50 TB of data, you will be able to compress it and pay for 25 TB of data.

You have control over configuration and retention as well. You can keep data for longer because of the in-built backup feature.

It's very easy to set up, and within 40 minutes, you can apply storage notes in Azure.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP uses native replication, SnapMirror, for replication between two CVOs or from on-premises to the cloud.

The SnapLock feature helps with compliance, and even a rogue admin will not be able to delete anything.

The beauty of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is that it's very easy to use.

I implemented NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for an enterprise customer three years ago, and it's being implemented in my current organization as well.

I would rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's stability at eight out of ten. 

You can scale vertically and horizontally, and I'd give scalability a rating of ten out of ten. The clients who use NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP are enterprise companies.

I would rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's technical support at ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is easy, and I would rate it at ten out of ten. It takes about 40 minutes.

It is not a cheap solution because we need to pay for the license and pay for Azure resources as well.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP needs to have customizable pricing options such as 10 TB increments. They seem to have only two options: 10 TB or 250 TB.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is a proven solution, and I would rate it at ten out of ten.

We use it to monitor our on-prem and our SnapMirror between one and the other.

It's a single pane of glass where we can see our applications running. 

The ability to see things going back and forth has been quite useful.

Its migration capabilities are very good. 

The solution could be better when we're connecting to our S3 side of the house. Right now, it doesn't see it, and I'm not sure why.

I've used the solution for a little over a year. Before, it was called Cloud Manager.

The stability is pretty good. There was an instance though where we were trying to delete a CVO instance off of it, and it took me a while to get it to release. It took a while to delete one of the instances since we already had taken it out, and it was asking to delete it. It couldn't connect to it to delete it. We ended up trading a new workspace and then deleting the old workspace.

We only have a few systems in it. We have two on-prem clusters, one CVO instance, and an S3 instance, which I don't have a connection to yet. There's something wrong with the configuration or firewall risk or going into S3. Then, we'll have our FSX one built into it when we get to that point.

Technical support is good. I get all the answers I need. I've never had any trouble with it. A lot of the time, we don't use it, though. Typically, we just Google something.

Of course, it would be ideal if they improved response time.

Positive

We did not use another solution previously. We always used the Cloud Manager, and then Cloud Manager became BlueXP. We've actually used the solution for about two years now, under two different names.

I was involved in the initial setup. When we deployed it, we had to add all the systems to it. It was really easy to set up. 

Once we had the workspaces in there, it was really easy just to add systems.

There's another admin that helped me with it who was the primary at the time.

I have not seen any ROI.

The pricing doesn't matter as it comes with the license that we have. It's free of charge with the bundle. 

We did not evaluate any other solution. 

We haven't done an actual migration from on-prem to the cloud. We're using it to drag and drop Volumes.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten since I had issues with deleting it, and I had to recreate a workspace.

Our primary use case is for shared storage. We use the solution to support our ERP environment, where our teams want to share storage between different servers/apps. We're mostly using it for NAS.

It's meant to do the same thing in the public cloud that we were doing in our private cloud. In the private cloud we can control the infrastructure, whereas in the public cloud we don't have as much control. This gives us a way to optimize resource usage in the public cloud, without overpaying or wasting resources.

It also provides unified storage no matter what data you have. It makes sure we have control of the data and that we know what it's being used for. The main thing for us is that we need to know what applications are consuming it and responsible for it. The solution helps us do that.

In addition, it helps us because we know what it's used for, who owns something, and who's accountable for those storage costs. Ultimately, it helps us reduce our storage needs and that's where we get our savings.

Compared to native cloud storage, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP allows us to better manage shared storage.

I don't have a preference for any feature. It's meant to optimize storage and usage within the public cloud.

Something we would like to see is the ability to better manage the setup and tie it to our configuration management database. We manage our whole IT infrastructure out of that database.

I've been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for about three years.

As far as I know, everything is stable.

It's very scalable.

We focus on apps or IT services that are using it and currently the total is in the neighborhood of about five.

I haven't used technical support.

Neutral

We did not have a previous solution.

Our challenge is understanding all the different storage that we set up and being able to tie each storage that we create back to an IT service and, ultimately, a cost center. That piece was difficult to set up and we had to do some things manually.

As for the amount of staff required on our side for deployment and maintenance, it's very minimal.

We used NetApp to help with the setup. We focused on just getting things up and running, rather than making sure everything was set up the way we wanted it to be. Part of that was the JCI issue, and part of that was that the vendor might have helped us better plan and better organize.

Make sure you investigate what your requirements are going to cost you using the native cloud solutions versus what NetApp is going to cost you, to make sure you have a business case to go with NetApp.

The biggest lesson I've learned from using this solution is to make sure you have a proper foundation and design in place to manage everything from A to Z before you start deploying your first storage on NetApp.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP is used for disaster recovery right now, and the primary use case for our current clients and environments is CIFS. Most clients use Cloud Volumes ONTAP as a replication destination for CIFS. It's a way to back up their documents and files offsite for disaster recovery. They have VMs that they spin up and connect to. 

In most cases, we have not deployed anything that uses the service protocol, like iSCSI or NFS. It's strictly CIFS. We haven't used one solution—matching DR for CIFS volumes—which is a destination that replicates from on-prem to the cloud, but we've done DR tests with that. 

The other two instances we're currently running will be the same scenario, but we're not there yet. Right now, they are being used for SnapMirror destinations of CIFS volumes only, and that's all three. We've been running Cloud Volumes ONTAP in Azure as a VM along with a connector. They had one deployed before I took it over, but it's typically done within the NetApp Cloud Manager system. Once we connect to the Azure portal or subscription, we push out the CVO from there.

Our clients see most of the benefits. Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides offsite backups. We used to host our backups on physical infrastructure in a data center or on remote sites. There were a lot of storage costs for replication. By implementing Cloud Volumes ONTAP in the Azure portal, we eliminated the cost of additional hardware and everything you have to maintain on-prem in a physical environment and put it up to the cloud. That was a considerable cost savings for the customer.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP is a massive improvement in terms of manageability. It's easier for customers to perform certain functions from that interface, knowing it sits on a high availability platform. We don't worry about paying all these separate vendors for replication solutions. Other costs are associated with maintaining physical infrastructure in a data center, like electricity or storage space, RAM, and other hardware. It has improved our clients' bottom line because they spend less on disaster recovery.

The Cloud Manager application that's on the NetApp cloud site is easy to use. You can set up and schedule replications from there, so you don't have to go into the ONTAP system. Another feature we've recently started using is the scheduled power off. We started with one client and have been slowly implementing it with others. We can cut costs by not having the VM run all the time. It's only on when it's doing replication, but it powers off after.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP's interface could use an overhaul. Sometimes you have to dig around in Cloud Manager a little bit to find certain things. The layout could be more intuitive. 

I haven't been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for too long. It has been a little under three years since we started working with it. We were mostly doing a lot with data centers, so we only really started getting into cloud systems about three years ago.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP seems to be fairly stable so far. The only time we have issues is when there is a circuit interruption, but this product has been pretty stable. We haven't had issues with crashes or data getting corrupted. We've had interruptions due to internet problems or leaks between the sites. 

These are things we have no control over because they're different providers. That's the only issue that I've seen. But once those come through the actual system itself, it's been fine as far as resiliency, performance, and availability.

We can expand on it as needed. In particular, it's easy to add storage, and storage expansion is probably the feature we utilize the most. We don't mess with any other features, like within the protocols or anything like that. Those are fine, but storage scalability is pretty good.

Our clients' storage needs vary. Typically, it's somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 terabytes, but at least 15 to 30 terabytes. Each client is a little different, but the one that uses the most storage has a capacity of about 30 terabytes.

NetApp technical support is pretty good. We sometimes have to wait a bit, but they're good at resolving issues once they find out what the problem is. They come back with solutions, so I would rate them pretty well.

Deploying Cloud Volumes ONTAP can be complex at times, but I think it's a learning curve. You have to put in many different pieces, and it's not always easy to find the documentation you need on the web. Some parts are straightforward, but sometimes you need to do some digging before deploying. 

It really comes down to planning. When implementing, we ensure each case is planned and deployed to the networking part for Azure. We also put together a template. That way, other engineers can follow or use it as a guideline when building it. I make a basic template of the required information, configuration settings, etc. 

These were all deployed as part of a much larger project, which included new hardware that was upgraded. The Azure and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP were part of that upgrade experience. It was in conjunction with the client getting a new on-prem NetApp system and other infrastructure, like switches. Once everything was migrated, we implemented the Azure part in Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

We have a small team for handling deployment. I think they have maybe two people. One person could do it, but there is an alternative if somebody is out on vacation. The managed service division covers all the maintenance for our clients. The managed service team takes over all the backend IT work for our clients. Instead of having a full staff, the client pays us to manage the backend of their servers and other infrastructure. As a managed service, we go in and take care of their switching, patches, upgrading, etc.

We do all of the implementations for our clients in-house who are the end-users. We sell them the solution and deploy it for them.

I believe our clients see a return because they don't need to purchase hardware. It's much easier and quicker for them to get additional storage when needed compared to an on-prem system. 

They save on costs associated with ordering additional storage for a physical on-prem system versus expanding what you have and you pay a little more in Azure. One client saw significant cost savings on their electricity bill. They reduced their bill by almost half just by shutting these things off.

Our management and salespeople deal with pricing. I'm not part of the price negotiations or anything like that. I work on design and implementation.

I rate Cloud Volumes ONTAP nine out of 10. It's an excellent solution that is cloud-based, so you don't have to worry about leasing or purchasing hardware. All costs of purchasing lines and circuits are upfront. Since this product works over the internet, you only need data access, which most of them have. 

Overall, I would say this is better than an on-prem solution that requires physical hardware at remote sites. You don't need to invest in buying or maintaining physical hardware. In this case, you're paying a monthly cost for something. You can decide at any time to stop using it if you don't need it anymore. That's a problem with owning physical infrastructure. You have to dispose of it when you don't need it anymore. Cloud Volumes ONTAP is also easier to manage and upgrade than on-prem systems.

It is for our databases and for Linux. We also use it for backups. We are replicating snapshots across, so we have different scenarios.

By implementing this solution, we wanted to achieve simplicity. We were trying to get away from reconfiguring everything all the time to work so that we could just get down and implement things within a very small window of time. They would not require a lot of reconfiguring each time.

The main benefit is accessibility. We are able to access it from anywhere. We are able to move things to what we need or are able to pull back the data when it is needed very quickly. We can restore the databases when I need to.

We have a single pane of glass. It helps a lot because time is always the essence. The simplicity comes in handy. It saves quite a bit of time. I do not have to sit down and do all the things. I am able to go in and hit a couple of things. I can deploy, modify, or do whatever needs to be done. It takes seconds versus hours. Once you learn the tool, it is very simple to work from the same point. When it first came out, it was very clunky. It took some time. It took some learning, whereas now, you can catch up pretty quickly. After you start to fine-tune it a little bit, you are able to work with it. Earlier, it was a pain.

I can see how much storage I have left and what I am working with. I can see the alerts. It gives me time to start working on what I need to procure at that point.

It has helped to right-size our workloads. It has been great. It has significantly dropped our downtime for volumes and improved the access for clients. It has helped out a lot in those aspects, so I can stay ahead of the game instead of behind the game. That is where that tool comes in handy. 

It is great when it comes down to pinpointing problem areas. It catches things before they become a problem, so I can keep my clients up and going and functioning. It has been great in that aspect.

I am a big fan of analytics because they give me the chance to be able to keep the clients up and going. That is my biggest thing because when they are down, we lose a lot of money, and we lose a lot of clients, so the ability to make sure that I am up almost 100% percent and being able to stay ahead of the game is a huge win for us.

The ease of use in terms of how the product works is valuable. We are able to work with it and deploy the storage that we need.

The dashboard is a little bit clunky. I like to see it a little bit more on the simplistic side. I would like to be able to create my own widgets and customize what I want to see a little bit more versus what is currently there. That would be helpful so that when I log in, I go straight to my widget or my board without going to multiple places to get to what I need to find or build.

We have been using NetApp ONTAP for 18 years.

It is very easy to scale. It takes next to no time to be able to do that. It is very simple and easy to do that part. You just need to get a license and add the storage.

I love NetApp support. If the first level cannot help you, then the next level can. We can get to them fairly quickly. If not, the reps or the sales can jump in and help us as well. We have never gone without some kind of help in one way or another. If there is a problem, they will jump on and bring on tier two and tier three, and write a script, or do whatever needs to be done. I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

Positive

We have been mostly using the NetApp tools. We have been trying to stay native as much as we can for a long time.

It has been a while. From what I remember, it was not too bad. It could be a little bit more simplistic, but it was not too bad to be out. Once you learn it, it gets easier.

It is a great product. It gives you the heads-up for what you need. You can move clients around and access the clients from different locations. You can also do a restore when you need to be at different locations. That has helped enormously. It has helped drive the cost down. Our clients are able to stay up and function consistently. There are a good 30% to 40% savings. 

We did evaluate other products, but that was a long time ago.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.