What needs improvement with HPE Alletra?

Improving HPE Alletra Storage is challenging to answer because there are several different metrics to consider. From a performance perspective, the improvements and large jumps are fantastic as is. From a deployment perspective, I was a big fan of the on-premise deployment model and then connecting it afterward to GreenLake. Now that's being sunsetted. From a sensor and metric standpoint, there is just enough data without getting useless metrics, where you become blind to what it provides. The HPE Storage Technical Assistance Center is still probably the best out of all the storage vendors. It's difficult to improve upon being able to call in and get assistance almost instantly.

HPE has come out with the essential part of a new feature, and I would like to see that completely implemented in the next release.

In terms of how HPE Alletra Storage can be improved, I can't think of anything right now because it's providing everything we need at this moment.

HPE Alletra Storage pricing can be improved. The pricing, licensing, and software have changed.

HPE Alletra Storage could be improved by adding support for file-based or S3 storage, as we have NetApp as our NAS storage. While NetApp is not our Tier 0 and doesn't provide the high critical speed, integrating such functionality into HPE Alletra would be great.

To improve HPE Alletra Storage, it would help us if CIFS is included in one of the later versions, especially since they recently released NFS. We struggle to gain access to senior support engineers. Typically, we need to escalate via sales.

Reducing the price for HPE Alletra Storage would be fantastic. However, we need better education that is specifically geared toward our sector and industry. In our specific case, we are very labor sensitive. As we examine AI opportunities with our vendors, we are very conscious about which AI opportunities we pursue due to the sensitivity of our team and staff, as the adoption of AI could impact their jobs. During a recent session, there was discussion about level one and level two engineering roles being replaced by generative AI, which was concerning for a labor union where staff are worried about job security. We would appreciate more education that's geared toward our sector and is sensitive to these concerns. The conversations should focus on how AI can augment what people are already doing, allowing them to move to higher-value tasks rather than replacing their positions entirely.

HPE Alletra Storage could be improved by making the units lighter. This could be implemented in the next release.

It's pretty perfect. I cheer on all of HPE's storage solutions. I appreciate HPE Alletra Storage. A negative aspect would be that I can only get pool utilization from InfoSight, not on the local array. I have to pull metrics every month from InfoSight, and it would be easier if it were just available on the local array.

HPE Alletra Storage could be improved with greater compatibility of the HPE KVM or VM hypervisor with our other products, which would allow us to migrate off of VMware.

I would not like to see any additional features included in the new release of the HPE Alletra Storage. We're still new to the solution. So far, it's fine.

I don't have any suggestions on how HPE Alletra Storage can be improved. I have no complaints. I don't have any additional features I want to see in future releases. I don't see anything that would be a perfect world kind of idea for improvement. HPE Alletra does not really provide a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. The limitation is that we cannot really downscale HPE Alletra Storage, even if we are running on the GreenLake; that's the nature of the storage.

I have no improvements or suggestions for additional features for the next release of the HPE Alletra Storage at the moment.

I'm going to skip discussing how HPE Alletra Storage can be improved as I'm not in the technology area right now and haven't paid attention to that.

The best way forward is to continue keeping the product lines within the Alletra brand specialized to what makes them good, ensuring that the features from where 3PAR was good, Nimble was good, and Apollo was good are maintained so that customers who have relied on them can continue to count on their availability.

The solution runs pretty good right now, although I haven't used it for too long. The features are pretty spot on.

I don't know how HPE Alletra Storage can be improved; I will have to ask my team what they want next.

HPE Alletra Storage does not provide a cloud-like operational model on-premises for managing data infrastructure. In the next release, the diagnostic application for use on another storage provider should be included.

HPE Alletra Storage could be improved in the observability GUI by consolidating information in one place instead of having it separated. It's currently too compartmentalized.

To improve the HPE Alletra Storage, I would suggest including smart functions and AI capabilities on the Nimble versions of the Alletra arrays since we are not using the MP version at this time.

To improve HPE Alletra Storage, it needs to have a true active-active controller; it claims to have an active-active controller from the back end, however, the second node is pretty much sitting there doing nothing. The MV 10000 series, which is the next series, is an improvement to HPE Alletra, and HPE is already doing that. In the next release, I would prefer to see better dedupe features; I know other companies do excellent dedupe, and they have protection group policies, meaning you have immutable data in case of a ransomware attack. If you're on the SAN, it should give you a way to protect that data without being erased. Other vendors have that capability built-in, ensuring that you can't erase the data, so features similar to that would be great.

I would like to see more compression and more scalability in the next release of HPE Alletra Storage.

There are so many features of HPE Alletra Storage that I probably don't even know about, and as a small shop, we probably don't take advantage of half of them.

The user interface, configuration, and customization could be improved, though the configuration is currently very easy. Even the migration from one platform to HPE Alletra Storage is very smooth. Pricing could be optimized, as it is always a challenge. The competition offers some storage solutions at lower prices, making the cost a significant factor.

HPE is not offering unified storage in their storage portfolio, which causes problems in local tenders and RFPs where customers demand NFS shares and block shares in the same enclosure. My suggestion is that the HPE Alletra Storage or HPE storage portfolio should offer storage models that can accommodate NFS and file shares, and block shares in the same single enclosure or controller.

I would say that maybe the user interface and experience could be improved. There are a few areas where enhancements can be made. One can find everything, but sometimes it requires time to navigate. Over time, I am sure engineers will provide input to categorize customizable features better. Maybe that's the only area that needs a few adjustments. Drawing from my CompTIA and ITIL certification, a more intuitive workflow design would benefit less technical users.

I do not have any areas of improvement as such. We have achieved all our defined objectives and metrics. Everything is performing well with no major problems or complaints and complete data protection. However, it could benefit from integrating an AI assistant module to streamline data migration between different vendor arrays in a more automated fashion.

More training videos would help. We could learn some best practices. Sometimes, people may not follow the best practices and reach out to support, who will tell them that they need to follow these best practices to get this performance or result.

The energy usage could be further improved. Generally speaking, if it uses less energy than the alternatives, it would be great.

I need the protocol expected. I want them to include NVMe protocol in VMware compatibilities.

Lately, I had trouble with the configuration. They have GreenLake, and you have to have the serial number connected to GreenLake. You have to connect to the cloud. When you configure it, the system has to be connected to the Internet. Otherwise, you cannot configure it. That is the most difficult part. They need to have something that does not require a connection to the Internet. Once you have configured it, then it should connect to the Internet or GreenLake, and that is fine. The problem for me is that I configure at a remote location where I do not have access to the Internet, but this requires the Internet.

We are using it as much as we need. I do not have any requirements. They can maybe have more flexibility for configurations or things like that.

They are definitely going to start pushing more on MP for files. This was an area where HPE was not very strong, but now, with Alletra MP, it is going to be very strong. Most importantly, there is going to be the flexibility of moving compute and storage on Alletra MP. This flexibility will be very good.

There can be more visibility and statistics for the customers to see. The customers would love to see AI. Even if it is not AI, there can be more visibility and real-time statistics that IT people can monitor and show to their bosses and impress them. To monitor things, they have reports, but the report system is old. Reports are by email. If they can show monthly growth and advise on the usage, it will make the lives of customers and IT people easy. They are going to love it. They would like to have one tool that can take them everywhere. There should be a single pane of glass. If they sit in a meeting, they should be able to answer questions related to whether they need more storage. They should not have had to go to different portals to get results, which creates confusion. If they have one place where they can see everything in graphics, it will be great.

We had some issues while installing it on our servers. It required more resources while cross-checking. So, the initial setup process could be better. Sometimes, it has trouble discovering other servers; it would be nice if there were a way to streamline the connection process.

It would be better if there were an option to incorporate the NVMe feature alongside other storage tiers. Currently, the system operates on Autotier but can manually peer and mix different types of drives, such as SAS and SATA drives.