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HPE StoreOnce Replication - license

Mfg # BB885A CDW # 3161746

Quick tech specs

  • License
  • for StoreOnce 4500 Backup
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HP's data replication feature includes replication bandwidth limiting functionality, constraining the amount of bandwidth being used when replicating data for even more network-efficient replication. Without replication bandwidth limiting, a replication job could use as much bandwidth as is available, potentially making other network activities unresponsive. Replication bandwidth limiting is customer configurable at the appliance level via the graphical user interface and is set as a percentage of the available network bandwidth.

This item was discontinued on October 06, 2022

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HPE StoreOnce Replication - license is rated 4.40 out of 5 by 82.
Rated 5 out of 5 by from User-friendly with good deduplication and compression capabilities What is our primary use case? 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. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of this solution are deduplication and compression. This is a user-friendly solution. What needs improvement? I would like to see an emphasis placed on making data deduplication and compression more powerful. For how long have I used the solution? We have four years of experience with this solution. What do I think about the stability of the solution? This is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The is an easy solution to scale. How are customer service and technical support? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What about the implementation team? One of our engineers performed the deployment of this solution for our customer. Which other solutions did I evaluate? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Reseller.
Date published: 2019-09-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to use with a centralized interface, with upgrades regularly available on the Webpage What is our primary use case? The primary use case of this solution is for backing up data in the production process. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for five years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? 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. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? 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. How are customer service and technical support? 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. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was straightforward and simple. The deployment was slow at first. The configurations process took several hours to complete. What about the implementation team? The implementation was done through a consultant. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? There are costs for additional storage and space. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-18T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from An extremely stable solution that's fast and offers a good deduplication ratio What is our primary use case? We primarily use the solution for backup storage. How has it helped my organization? 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. What is most valuable? The speed and deduplication ratio are two of the most valuable features of the solution. What needs improvement? I'm using this product to save some files. It has a feature where I can make it as an SMB share, or as an Ark share as well. 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 the 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. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using the solution for nine years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is very stable. After nine years, I have yet to have a problem. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? 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 1300 users and three admin who are maintaining the solution. We use the solution every day to run backups. How are customer service and technical support? Technical support is very good. If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What about the implementation team? 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. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? 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. Which other solutions did I evaluate? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-08-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from An excellent deduplication solution with a user-friendly interface and a straightforward setup What is our primary use case? We primarily use the solution for deduplication and replication. We occasionally also use it for disaster recovery. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? The solution's pricing could be improved. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using the solution for four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is quite stable. How are customer service and technical support? Technical support has been great. They are the best in the market. They're very responsive. How was the initial setup? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from An excellent backup storage solution that's easy to use and offers great stability What is our primary use case? We implement the full data centre - from A-Z. Our clients typically use the solution as a backup data destination. What is most valuable? The most valuable aspect of the solution is the catalyst feature. It can integrate with various other backup solutions. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I've been selling the solution for four years now. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is very stable. How are customer service and technical support? Technical support is good. If it's not good we make it good because we, as a partner, offer technical support ourselves. If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2019-09-12T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A robust solution that is easy to set up and configure What is our primary use case? 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. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I have approximately six years of experience with this solution. What do I think about the stability of the solution? We have implemented this solution for a number of customers, and they are happy with the stability. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? 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. How are customer service and technical support? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Reseller.
Date published: 2019-08-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's a stepping stone to get a lot of our backups done without the use of tape. Other than sheer capacity in terms of size, the throughput has been adequate. Valuable Features The dedupe benefit, the granularity of specifying different retention and different policies for dedupe, you can go without dedupe, too. Sometimes you have applications that are doing compression and don't need the dedupe benefit. You have all that versatility in this scalable product, for sure. Improvements to My Organization I'm a storage supervisor in the media and entertainment industry. We use the StoreOnce and the 3PAR, as well. Our previous solution was tape only solution. We looked at the StoreOnce as a valuable stepping stone to get a lot of our backups done without the use of tape, so it was sort of an intermediary device to accomplish that goal. We're partnered with HP. We came alongside HP and they offered this solution as a viable alternative. Stability Issues The stability has been rock solid. We have not had issues. There have been other platforms we've seen problems with. Other than sheer capacity in terms of size, the throughput has been adequate, so we haven't had really any issues to speak of. It's a scalable solution that gives us a lot of versatility. We're able to put these devices in remote locations if we need them, to help offload the tape infrastructure, and really meet the requirements of the site, whether it be the retention or the off-siting capability. Then, as those sites grow, we can expand them. It does give us a lot of versatility. The upgrade process, my understanding is, I haven't been directly involved, but it has been hitless. There really has not been downtime to do these. Customer Service and Technical Support The technical support is fantastic. Yeah, we've had a great experience with the StoreOnce device. We've even gotten folks on site when we've needed them to do firmware upgrades and those sorts of things where our technical abilities don't quite cut the mustard, so to speak. You know, we're pretty satisfied with where things are at right now. I can't speak to what we truly need in the coming weeks, months, years, from the StoreOnce platform, but I think what I've seen here so far, some of the solutions being offered as far as integration with the 3PAR would be an area that would be really interesting to see. Other Solutions Considered On the short list was to continue with IBM. We were in a TSM environment, and we had been with TSM for years and years. The HP Data Protector solution with the StoreOnce on the backend seemed like a logical next step for us, because we have other HP products in-house, including the 3PAR, for some of our tier one storage needs. I would give it at least an eight or a nine. Yeah, it's a rock solid platform for us. It's got a very direct application, and purpose. It's not trying to meet many, many needs like some of the file services platforms do. It's a backup and it does its job. I think it was mostly a price win, really, between the two. The pricing that was offered in conjunction with a lot of other purchases we've made with HP made it a very attractive offer, and the technology behind it was solid and passed all of our testing needs. It just seemed like a logical fit for us. Sure, with StoreOnce we were actually seeing quite a bit of dedupe benefit where we weren't getting any dedupe before, so we're actually getting reports generated where we can see the dedupe ratios for various datasets that we're actually backing up. Basically the net effect is that we're using a lot less space to do our backups, and it gives us the versatility to spin off certain backups to tape, or to replicate off-site or to just let age out in the system and get overwritten. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2015-09-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from They provide me with everything in one box and I don't need to worry about other equipment. Valuable Features: We just put two StoreOnce appliances in our data center. They provide me with everything in one box and I don't need to worry about other equipment. Improvements to My Organization: We can focus on things more important than performing backups. It has everything we need and I think we've made a good decision. Room for Improvement: We want to be able to use Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC), but that won't come until the next version of the StoreOnce software. Now we're using Data Protector. Stability Issues: It's been up and running now for four months and we haven't had any issues. Scalability Issues: I just say I need X terabytes and I'm done. At the moment, we have around 150TB and we expect to grow because we're going more and more to video. We have four newspapers and an online presence with videos embedded in our stories. Previous Solutions: We were using a very old backup platform with tapes and an older version of Data Protector. We upgraded Data Protector and bought StoreOnce. Other Advice: I think you just have to experience it. You'll see that companies that use it have a good experience with it. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-01-07T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It allows us to complete daily backup and restore tasks quicker than from physical tape, but it needs further integration with NetBackup to allow the use of catalyst storage as well as AIR. Valuable Features The use of the OST product for NetBackup AIR has been the most valuable feature as this allows seamless Disaster Recovery options. Improvements to My Organization The B6200 allows us to complete daily backup and restore tasks quicker than from physical tape. Also, we can use the replication of deduplicated backups to our offsite facility rather than sending lots of tapes Room for Improvement Further integration with NetBackup to allow the use of catalyst storage as well as AIR would be an improvement. Use of Solution I have been using this product for approximately five years. Deployment Issues When we first obtained the B6200 we did fill the disks due to our lack of understanding of how the the storage sets worked, which caused us an issue as the system at the time shutdown the F/C connections to stop any further data being sent to it. HP had to become involved in restoring the system, but this problem has now been addressed with new firmware. Stability Issues With the older firmware we did have problems with the B6200 crashing with kernel problems, though this has now been addressed with the firmware updates. Scalability Issues We have not had any problems with the scalability of the B6200. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: I have used HP services on a few occasions when setting up new functions and for problem resolutions and have found the service to be very good. Technical Support: The technical support has been very good and the specialists know the product and can resolve the issues that were presented to them. Previous Solutions We switched from the HP VLS12000 system to the B6200 as the we wanted to use a full disk based backup solution rather than a Virtual Library. Also, the B6200 provides the support for NetBackup AIR. Initial Setup We had a three-day onsite training course, so we found it fairly straightforward, I have since changed the configuration to accommodate NetBackup AIR and followed the HP documentation, which was easy to navigate and implement. Implementation Team The set-up was completed by HP services. Other Advice The HP StoreOnce range is great if you are running NetBackup as it integrates well with the backup product, the deduplication rates are very favorable, and it also allows the use of the DR option using AIR. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-12-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent deduplication ratios. Overall it did not live up to expectations. Valuable Features Excellent deduplication ratios. Improvements to My Organization It did not improve the way my organization functions: It was just an alternative method to accomplish what was being done a different way. Room for Improvement The UI is rather dated and not intuitive. Also, the setup is rather complex and you need to understand the product to best leverage it. The GUI has a look from the traditional HP interfaces of 10 years ago. The layout is confusing as it is designed for someone that really understands the underpinnings of StoreOnce. The P6500 is basically a pair of DL380 servers running a Linux distribution clustered with all the necessary hardware and then is presented as a single StoreOnce appliance. Many of the menus in the GUI provide drill down capabilities that can get you deep into the inner workings of the appliance but, unless you know what you are doing, it is more there for support to utilize. While the appliance is a single cluster you are really working with each node individually further complicating management of the device. You need to put some thought into how you will distribute the workload across the nodes because the appliance does not provide any mechanisms for load balancing. While HPE claims StoreOnce will work with CommVault, our experience was that the use case was very narrow. While the P6500 has some beefy hardware the software is the Achilles heel. We found that as the dataset grows the P6500 becomes bogged down in housecleaning tasks that conflict with the incoming workload. Use of Solution 3 months. Scalability Issues The product did not scale well and had several issues where it bogged down under load. When used with a non HPE backup product, you really need to optimize the StoreOnce ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ) and your backup product to work well together. Customer Service and Technical Support Support was good, better than average, but left a little room for improvement. Previous Solutions We were using native backup (Commvault ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/commvault )), which was unreliable. We selected this as a method to improve and better scale our backup deduplication, but it turned out StoreOnce introduced enough inconsistencies and incompatibilities, we actually went back to Commvault’s native deduplication. Initial Setup You need vendor ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ) assistance to get the product properly set up and configured. Implementation Team Vendors supplied resources for install and initial configuration assistance. Other Advice Make sure you understand your use case very well, go over it in detail with the vendor and get commitments that it is compatible with your use case. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It also allows us to make the most of the appliance and make the most of the technology as a whole. What is most valuable? I think the most valuable feature is the catalyst technology, which is in the StoreOnce appliance. It allows us to really hit our backup targets. It also allows us to make the most of the appliance and make the most of the technology as a whole. How has it helped my organization? It's really given us more confidence in our backup procedures and our DR. It's also really just been beneficial because it's kind of replaced a lot of older equipment and consolidated our back-up plan into one device and made things a lot more streamlined, runs a lot faster. It's easier to manage because we were running a VTL device, a Virtual Tape Library, and it became a headache to manage tons of virtual tapes, whereas the StoreOnce is a one place one stop shop for back-up for stores, so that's really help me train other people on how to use the system and not have to go here, there, and yonder to figure out what you really need. What needs improvement? The biggest thing I think can be improved upon would be direct tape from the StoreOnce device so that we could actually ... We archive our backups on tape, so I feel like if we could somehow plug our tape drive directly into the StoreOnce device and set it up to where it would archive based on, if some kind of rules based engine or what have you, that would really be an improvement for us. What do I think about the stability of the solution? So far, we've been really impressed with it. We've had no downtime. We're coming off a D2D4312 system, and we had greater than 99.9 percent uptime on that device. We're very confident in the StoreOnce device, the uptime stability, everything is going to be just as good. We're a long-term HP customer, and we will probably remain so because it just works. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability, we bought the device with one external expansion option, and I think it'll scale up to four. For the next five to seven years, it should scale out for all of our needs. It's very good, we're a mid-size enterprise, so it will more to meet our needs unless something disruptive happens. How is customer service and technical support? It's very good, the questions I had were answered probably within, I think, maybe two to four hours, so it was a really good experience for that. Which solutions did we use previously? Due to a lot of retention, we've been having to retain a lot of things for compliance. We were running out of space on our older system, and we've been looking at the catalyst technology as an upgrade to the older system, but it was determined that we should just buy a new system and migrate forward because the old system was 5 or 6 years old, I think. It was prior to HP bringing the catalyst technology, it came out on the 6,000 units down to the 4,000 level. It never had catalyst, it was a straight VTL backup to disk solution. How was the initial setup? It was a pretty easy process. We basically stacked it racked it, plugged it in, went through the start-up guide. We did have some help from Avnet, they were kind of our partner, but we actually did it all in house, and they were kind of our Tech Support. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I looked a few EMC solutions and a couple other vendors, but basically the price point and feature set was not there for any other vendor. HP has earned a reputation in our organization for reliability and stability, and they get first pick on things due to that reputation because it just works. I actually have one server sitting in a closet from 1997 that's still running, so that's kind of a testament to how much we believe in HP. What other advice do I have? Really to talk to a reseller. Our reseller that helped us out a lot was CDW, and we really talked to a reseller. If at all possible, to make that extra investment in the catalyst technology because it's really going to make their lives a whole lot simpler, whole lot easier, and I think that's the number 1 thing is look at the HP offerings, look at the catalyst offerings, and it's really going to simplify your life. Backups are kind of one of those things where you don't want to worry about it, you don't want to be up at night fiddling with it. I've probably gone from spending anywhere from maybe four to six hours a week tending backups to about 30 minutes a week. Just in my time, and our backup window has been cut by 75%, it's probably taken about 25% h time as before we implemented the catalyst technology. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-06-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from I like that we don't have to go to a separate console to manage StoreOnce and another one for our backup application. Valuable Features We don't have to go to a separate console to manage StoreOnce and another one for our backup application, one console. It's meeting our requirements now. For us, it's just a question of we've only been running it for about 3 to 6 months now. I'm looking for a full year. We are trying to test out some of the new features like the RMC product which helps integrate the StoreOnce with 3PAR and we're going to be bringing in our 3PAR storage very, very soon. We're looking forward to the ability of StoreOnce to integrate with other HP solutions that we purchased. We've looked at dedup technology for quite sometime, but we're primarily an HP shop. We wanted something that would integrate well into what we currently have. One of the things we liked about StoreOnce is that it is a technology that scales very well. They have hardware appliances at the high end and they also have a virtual appliance. In our deployment, in our infrastructure, we needed both ends. It's the same interface, the same functionality. That's one of the things that we were really liked about it. Improvements to My Organization We've had some ongoing challenges in our backup infrastructure being able to complete the job successfully, have good knowledge that our data was secure. We knew we needed to improve upon that. StoreOnce and a dedup technology was where we wanted to go. As far as once we've implemented the StoreOnce, it's achieved what we thought it would do and then some. One of our, it wasn't my primary objective, our secondary objective was to reduce the tape out. By implementing StoreOnce, we've been able to dramatically reduce the number of tapes that we have to keep in our environment. We've had a real challenge with our resorts in making sure the backups are performed and completed and we're able to do that and bring the dedup images back to our central location. We are a much higher rate of success in our backups. It's built on HP hardware, no problem there. Stability Issues The virtual appliance, it's virtualized so no problems at all with stability. Scalability Issues Scalability, that's one of the other features that I really like about it, especially in the virtual plans. All you do is if you run out of space, you add another VMDK and it just scales up seamlessly. You don't even have to reboot. Customer Service and Technical Support We've had a couple of challenges where we've had to engage them and they're fantastic. I mean they listened, problems get escalated if they need to get escalated. They're extremely helpful and what really impressed me is it's like they're very knowledgeable of the BURA environment. They were well aware of the challenges that I was facing with my users. If we had an outage, they were well aware of that I had to find a different place to store the data, what the risks were. Yeah, they're fantastic. I love the technical services that we get from them. We had some bumps as far as implementation. Part of the challenge that we have is our primary data centers are hosting centers, so they're lights out. Implementation Team We used HP's technical support for the startup services. They helped us with the implementation. We don't have staff at our data center. That was a bit of a challenge for scheduling, but then that is agnostic of the product that you're trying to install. Through the startup services that we purchased from HP services help desk because we have to integrate this with our backup product which we were a semantic shop, so we had to integrate that, the StoreOnce technology with that. They were very helpful in getting that done. Yes, it's slips in very well. One of the things we really like about it is that you managed everything from the backup console. Our backup administrator, well he is aware, but he manages it just like it's another store. The deduplication, all that happens in the background. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing It's just amazing. No cost. As long as you have the StoreOnce appliance with catalyst, there's no cost for that. It is a nice feature that's going to keep my DBAs happy. Other Advice That's not only HP, it's the support. We get pre sales support, we get post sale support. We get it in the implementation, so not just the product, but it's the people behind the product as well. If I had a peer asking me about the StoreOnce, I'm a technical consultant from background so I'd asked him what problem are they trying to solve and make sure they got the right one. With StoreOnce, it's not a point solution. It has to fit well into your environment. You have to understand what problems are you trying to solve so that you implement it properly. We had to integrate like in our case, we had challenges with remote circuits that we had to make sure the low bandwidth replication. We had to integrate it with semantic. Unless you have the same problem as I am, you wouldn't necessarily implement the same solutions. Through that implementation, I learned a lot about the product and then coming to events like this, HP Discovery you learn more. You learn some trips that you didn't. For example during this trip, I learned about the catalyst plug in that I can use for my database products so that my DBAs can do their backups direct to StoreOnce. I didn't know that was available. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2015-09-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We Needed A Solution To Leverage Archiving And Provide Us With Enterprise Data Protection Valuable Features Some of the valuable features are that we’re able to regain ROI off of our tier one environment, so we’re able to take archive data, legacy data, put that on, give it retention tagging, and retention timelines, and then it’ll be able to be purged at a later date. Instead of using up our Tier 1 storage, which is about a $1.45 a gigabyte, we’re able to leverage tier two storage with dedupe and compression, at 35 - 45 cents a gigabyte, so that to us just made sense. Improvements to My Organization In terms of benefits that we’re seeing, we’re definitely seeing improved backup times. We went from two and a half hours to four hours for backups -- down to under ten minutes. So, the amount of recouped administration time that we’re gaining is astronomical. From a stability perspective I think StoreOnce has definitely been extremely stable for us. We didn’t really have a D-R-D-P solution and I think it really compliments our blade environment in taking a lot of the data that we have around the organization that’s legacy, and looking at that, looking at last touched date, things of that nature, we’re able to really leverage archiving now, and that’s something we weren’t able to do before, because we were keeping all of our backups in our Tier 1 storage. We really didn’t have a location to have an enterprise data recovery, and data protection strategy and now we do. In terms of the way that we feel, or the way that I feel about StoreOnce, I think it definitely provided us with the opportunity to give the business something it never had before, and that is a true guarantee to the data that we have. So we’re able to really protect and fortify our archive data, instead of not being able to restore in times when we actually need to have the data available. Room for Improvement From a feature functionality perspective I think overall having some more mobility tied into it, having the ability to have applications that you can use on the go, that can give you kind of an overlay of the overall health and welfare of your data protection and data recovery strategy, being able to do simple things, like having run books. I think those are some of the things that we definitely want to get into. I’d like to see that develop a lot more. Scalability Issues From a scalability perspective, some of the things that are intriguing to me are we have the ability to scale as the business needs and we can also contract, so we can be fluid. We can move when the business needs us to move, we can back up, we can make sure that we have all the pertinent data that the organization needs, and also have the ability to restore it quickly, and not tie up production systems and production storage while doing that. Customer Service and Technical Support I think HP, by far has some of the best technical support I’ve ever encountered. I was just telling a story in regards to how we started doing business with HP. HP came out and serviced us, and we weren’t even under contract. The same day, same night, and made sure our organization was whole come the next day, and for an eight billion dollar company that really resonated with us. That was the precursor to our decision to move forward with HP and we’ve been really happy ever since. Previous Solutions In looking at criteria from a tier two storage perspective in terms of data protection and data recovery, I think cost was definitely one of the factors that we looked at. We looked at response time, we looked at integration ability, and I think coupling that with the environment that we had, we’re a 98 percent virtualized organization, from a virtual server perspective, and I think tying that in to our already HP environment, really weighed on the decision for us to move in the StoreOnce direction. Other Solutions Considered From a solutions perspective, in terms of what we’re doing from data protection and data recovery, we knew that we needed to have a tier two solution in terms of storage. We looked at many different avenues within the market, and we really felt that from an ROI perspective and a total cost of ownership perspective, that HP StoreOnce was really the way we needed to go, so we built our data protection and data recovery strategy around that using HP and Veeam. That actually helped us to build RTOs, RPOs, and real SLAs and OLAs from a restoration perspective to the business. There were other vendors on the short list, and to be completely honest, they paled in comparison. We were actually considering an EMC product, DataDomain, and Exagrid and they just didn’t have the compute power or the price point that we really wanted to be in, so we just leveraged the HP relationship that we already had and went complete StoreOnce, and we’ve been extremely happy with it so far. Other Advice Researching advice I’d give to my peers: I would definitely say do your homework. Do a true comparison between everybody in the market. That way you will actually be able to see the benefit that HP provides at the cost point, at the total cost of ownership, ROI, and also from a performance perspective as well. Depending on who you’re using from a backup solution perspective, StoreOnce, is gonna work with anyone. Getting a full understanding of who the players are in the market, you’re gonna see that HP is definitely a major player in that space. Really understand your business, really understand what your strategic goals are, really understand where you’re going from an organizational perspective. That will give you insight into how you build your data protection and data recovery strategy. Some of the things that we did were we sat down with operations, we sat down with legal, we sat down with finance, and we defined what that was as an organization before we ever started looking, so definitely do your homework. Make sure you understand where your business is going before you go get a solution In researching solutions I think peer reviews are definitely important. I think knowing for yourself is also important, but definitely do your research, definitely listen to what the market is saying, and above all else, go see it for yourself. Take a demo, look at it, look at what they’re saying, help them prove it to you, really understand what your requirements are and how the solution maps back to your requirements. It’s really all about that. If it’s a map, and it maps back, you got to be able to prove what in the solution maps back to what your requirement is. Leveraging data from your peers is definitely important, but making sure that you truly understand what your requirements are, and what in the solution maps back to your requirements is key for success. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2015-08-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from From an operational standpoint it has increased our efficiency. Valuable Features It's very usable with the interface for the administration. It works with a lot of different applications so it is very scalable for other applications. You don't have to just backup the entire system but you can back up specific applications if you want. Improvements to My Organization From an operational standpoint it has increased our efficiency and we're able to save a lot of manpower and resources for mundane backup stuff that we've done in the past so that other people can focus on more strategic initiatives in our business. Room for Improvement One of the things that I think that's on the docket for implementation with StoreOnce is Azure and Cloud incorporation. Currently we are doing object copies with StoreOnce to take our backups and copy them to the cloud. But I know that the feature is actually going to be integrated even further in the near future with StoreOnce and Data Protector so that's one thing that we're looking forward to. Stability Issues The product is great. I've been a 3PAR and StoreOnce customer for many years now and I am now a very strong backing of HPE's storage and backup infrastructures. It's been a really good experience for the past couple of years. Scalability Issues I think that what other products or other competitors are lacking is the use and the adaptation for other applications within Microsoft. If you wanted to backup SharePoint or SQL or clusters or other kind of features within Microsoft products with other backup companies or other partners they don't necessarily have that compatibility. If you have a large environment with a lot of diverse applications and systems and configurations, Data Protector definitely covers that and obviously StoreOnce is backing that. Customer Service and Technical Support They're excellent. Everything from pre-sales to post-sales and then just more on the sustainment model. They're eager to be engaged and they definitely take the extra to make sure that we're meeting our needs because obviously backups are important stuff. I would say they're leading the edge as far as customer engagement. Previous Solutions We were using other solutions previously. We initially started using 3PAR as our storage provider. As we went along that road we saw that 3PAR and their storage solution was really solid. We had a great experience with that so we kind of grew our footprint with HPE and we just added our StoreOnce. It's been a great experience. Initial Setup It's actually very straightforward. A lot of the times when you're dealing with storage and architecture it can be very complex with other vendors. With 3PAR and StoreOnce, those setups are very easy and then you can hand it over to lower skilled admins to manage the systems because it doesn't take an architect to manage the system. Other Solutions Considered Veeam obviously does a lot of virtualization but it is only virtualization so we have a very diverse set of applications in our environment. You have NetBackup and Symantec that have their backups as well. They've been around for a long time but I think that the maturity of Data Protector at StoreOnce has really surpassed their technology and just usability and support. That's why we went ahead with StoreOnce. Other Advice StoreOnce is fairly new. Even this week, they're announcing a lot of new features for reporting and management. I think there's a lot of room for them to grow and it's exciting to see what they're going to come out with in the near future. I think it's a great product now and I think it's going to get even better in the next couple months. I think the best thing to do is to get a demo. Try it out. Obviously its looking and feeling is more important than looking at a bunch of slides or a bunch of white papers so actually looking at and seeing how it works and see if it meets your requirements. Everyone has their specific environments and their unique criteria so that's really what we did and we're really happy with it.a Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-06-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It limits the amount of storage that we have to purchase. My biggest irk is the people who will be managing these things are going to be more your system administrators. They're not Java programmers. Valuable Features: 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. Improvements to My Organization: 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. Room for Improvement: 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. Stability Issues: I have no data on it as it's too soon in our use. Previous Solutions: 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. Initial Setup: We had no issues deploying it. Other Advice: It works well with Data Protector. It works well with 3PAR and that's our environment and so it's a vendor specified solution. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-07-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to setup and use. Competitive price point. Valuable Features: StoreOnce is a new product for me. Throughout the years, as director in certain companies, I've been a big EMC Data Domain customer. We've purchased a couple StoreOnce, and so far I really like the product. It's very similar to Data Domain. It was very easy to stand up. We had it going in one day. It was our target for our backups for CommVault, to write all of our backups to. Now we replicate from one StoreOnce to the other, so as far as DR and contingency, it's really nice. The ease of use is excellent and the price point is very competitive. It's really good. Improvements to My Organization: There's no tape involved. The tape is gone. Our backups are very easy to use with the StoreOnce. It's takes very little configuration. We don't have to babysit the device. Every once in a while, we just go in and look at it and see what kind of dedupe rates we're getting and check on our storage, etc. So far it's been a very easily operational situation with the StoreOnce. Room for Improvement: Where I've used Data Domain in the past as another application - another use for Data Domain, maybe StoreOnce can improve by not just being a target for open systems, meaning Windows or Linux boxes. In the past, I've used Data Domain with, an IBM AS/400 iSeries, as a backup target to an iSeries platform, so they could possibly improve there. Previous Solutions: The biggest thing that StoreOnce is very easy to use, just like Data Domain is very easy to use. The price point of StoreOnce is really something people should be looking at. In my experiences with Data Domain is that it's going to be very expensive to maintain. To keep that after the purchase, it's very expensive to maintain. Not only on the initial purchase, but also on the ongoing annual maintenance fees of Data Domain. Initial Setup: It was very easy. Implementation Team: I had HPE do it. Cost and Licensing Advice: Even the small one that I have over at the job site was not cheap. Other Advice: If it had a little more functionality with other platforms, it would be rated higher. Really look at that product and compare it to the direct competition and compare it as far as features, price and annual maintenance and I think you'll see that StoreOnce should really take a hard look at that one. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-06-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's very stable. It gives us full-system backups, meaning we need less storage capacity. Valuable Features StoreOnce gives us full-system backups, meaning we need less storage capacity. This is very important to us because less storage capacity means we buy less hardware and have less overall costs. Improvements to My Organization Not only do we need less storage capacity, but it also performs backups a lot quicker. We save money this way as well because it saves us time which can be better spent elsewhere. Room for Improvement Although we're very happy with it right now, the encryption could be better. Security of our backups, of course, is very important. Deployment Issues We have no issues with deployment. Stability Issues It's very stable. We've only had one small problem since the implementation. Scalability Issues We're not using anywhere close to what we have. We've designed it to allow for our five-year growth. We're not there yet. Customer Service and Technical Support We try to avoid technical support because it's "entertaining", though I'd use different words to describe it. Initial Setup The initial setup was straightforward. Implementation Team HP implemented the solution, but it's fine if you go at it on your own. The thing is, if you run into problems, then you have to deal with HP support, which is something I wouldn't advise anyone to do. We are a BAU house, so our focus is on keeping the business running. We don't have the skill set of an American architect who scoped out the project. We've partnered with an HP partner who does have the skill set once we purchased StoreOnce. Other Advice Make sure you run a proper POC. It's a pretty straightforward solution so long as it's configured right from the start. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-01-17T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from 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. Valuable Features: 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. Improvements to My Organization: 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. Room for Improvement: 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. Use of Solution: We brought it in a part of a whole HP infrastructure about 18 months ago. Deployment Issues: We've had no issues deploying it. Stability Issues: We've never had an issue with stability. Scalability Issues: 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. Previous Solutions: 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. Other Solutions Considered: 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. Other Advice: 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. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We're an HP Partner.
Date published: 2015-12-31T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Very reliable, great deduplication rates. Valuable Features: The most valuable features for us are the very high-performance deduplication and high deduplication rates. These features make it quite cost-effective. Improvements to My Organization: We previously used a tape-based backup system with a tape library and off-site storage of tapes, which was very expensive to run. It also wasn't terribly reliable and we had constant issues with capacity. We migrated to StoreOnce and we're using the copy feature of StoreOnce to copy to another unit in a different location. We have the primary unit that we do backups to, and then we have another unit in our disaster-recovery site, and all the backups are copied over the WAN to the disaster-recovery site. It uses deduplication to do that too, so the bandwidth requirements are quite low. So we have a completely tapeless backup flow that is very low impact on our network and has very high reliability. Room for Improvement: StoreOnce actually does pretty much everything we need. There are quite a lot of features that we don't use at the moment such as virtual tape library and NAS. But the initial network setup is not intuitive, and this could be improved. Use of Solution: I've used it for 18 months. Deployment Issues: We've had no issues with deploying it. Stability Issues: StoreOnce has been 100% stable in the eighteen months that we've been using it. We actually purchased an additional unit for a third location after the initial purchase of two units on the basis of the performance and reliability. Scalability Issues: We've had no issues with scalability. Initial Setup: StoreOnce is not really complicated to set up. It's probably something that can be done by a typically-skilled systems administrator in a day or a half-day. Other Advice: I think as long as you have a clear understanding of what it does and you're quite sure that that's what you need, then there isn't a better product. Certainly, in terms of the ease-of-use and reliability, we haven't had any issues with StoreOnce. It's definitely one of the products that I would recommend to anyone. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-02-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We previously used Symantec Backup-Exec to LTO-4 tape. We needed a more scalable solution that was faster and allowed replication off-site nightly at a much quicker rate. Valuable Features It's fast and reliable when compared to tape solutions. Improvements to My Organization Over 51TB of data is backed up and replicated off-site every week quickly and reliably, compared to the laborious tape archiving solution we had in the past. Room for Improvement The web-GUI is not intuitive enough for basic users and offers fairly limited functionality compared to a backup solution such as Veeam or Backup-Exec. Use of Solution I've used it for 15 months. Deployment Issues No issues encountered. Stability Issues Rarely have issues with stability. Scalability Issues No issues when you need to scale up. It's as simple as 'chucking more disks' into the array when the space needs expanding. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: Good from HP, as usual (on a contract). Technical Support: Good from HP, as usual (on a contract). Previous Solutions We previously used Symantec Backup-Exec to LTO-4 tape. We switched because we needed a more scalable solution that was faster and allowed replication off-site nightly at a much quicker rate. Initial Setup Simple, it was handled by HP. Implementation Team We had HP do the implementation, with a third party consultancy firm called System Professional. They had exceptional understanding of the entire platform. ROI I cannot put a price on this investment. Suffice it to say that the countless number of man-hours saved not having to deal with tapes every day/week/month is invaluable. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing £100,000 including installation, support and maintenance contracts. This also includes two StoreOnce devices - one at our datacentre, and one replica at another campus. Other Solutions Considered No, we have an extensive support contract with HP and were given a heavily discounted educational agreement as opposed to what other vendors such as EMC were offering. Other Advice If you work for an educational institution (as I do), the potential long-term savings will easily add up compared to the short-term initial investment. Do your homework and look elsewhere and you will find it difficult to beat the product/service in terms of cost and performance Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-12T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We like the ability to control where the dedupe takes place and the replication between data centers and smaller credit centers. Valuable Features The ability to control where the dedupe takes place. StoreOnce allows deduplication in three locations; the client, the backup appliance and designated media servers. This flexibility can come in handy especially in smaller shops/data centers. For example, if network bandwidth is the issue you can dedupe at the client, and that reduces the total amount of data that has to be sent over the wire, or if a backup client doesn’t have the horsepower to dedicate CPU and memory to the dedupe process, you can do it at a designated media server (90% of our backups happen that way). Thirdly, at some of our smaller data clusters, our clients needs all their CPU and memory for running apps, and we don’t have a dedicated media server so we let the StoreOnce appliance do the deduplication. Also, the ease of replicating between the three types of StoreOnce devices. Improvements to My Organization Since we went from disk to tape to D2D that’s a huge improvement. We now have faster more reliable backups, easy replication between data centers and smaller credit centers. Room for Improvement * Capacity of the B6200 as the capacity has improved/tripled in the 6500 * It would be nice if it dedupelicated per service set instead of by the store Use of Solution I've used it for two years including testing, and in production for 16 months. Deployment Issues The B6200 was designed to ingest data from different networks and we had three. Some we had to do some additional VLAN tagging. Stability Issues We’ve experienced data lost. We’ve had three stores go off-line (which were recoverable) and had a disk become corrupt at the service set/couplet level. The corrupt service set had to be formatted and we lost 40TB of data. Luckily most of it was replicated from another data center. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: 9/10. Technical Support: 8/10. Previous Solutions We didn't have a previous solution. Initial Setup It was very complex because our setup included six data centers with three types of StoreOnce devices. Replication between multiple sites, and Oracle, Lotus Notes, VMware, SQL, and Exchange online integrations. Implementation Team We used a vendor team who were 5/10. HP sent their design team, and they were helpful but the StoreOnce product was very new and they were learning the product. We were given bad information which led to a crash. Other Solutions Considered We also looked at Data Domain, and another whose name I can't remember. Other Advice Don’t get the B6200 get the 6500 even if you have to start small in terms of storage. You can add on as you need it. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's cost effective, technologically advanced, and scalable. What is most valuable? It's cost effective, technologically advanced, and very scalable. It integrates with the rest of the HPE infrastructure, like 3PAR, for example. How has it helped my organization? 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. What needs improvement? 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. What do I think about the stability of the solution? So far, it looks quite stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability is very good. How is customer service and technical support? We get technical support from our partner and also from HPE personnel. The support is very good. Which solutions did we use previously? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. Which other solutions did I evaluate? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is part of an initiative to unify our solutions with one vendor. I would like to see automatic restore. What is most valuable? We hope to unify all our solutions, so because our storage is HPE and all our services are HPE, we also need to use StoreOnce for our backup. It has good features. How has it helped my organization? Support is the main thing. If we have any issue, it’s easy for us to track or investigate it, because we don’t have different solutions from different vendors. This is the main benefit we are getting. What needs improvement? I would like to see automatic restore and monitoring tools like a dashboard. For how long have I used the solution? We started using it in 2015. What do I think about the stability of the solution? We have had some issues. We are working with HPE to solve all the issues. For example, when we try to restore, other solutions have automatic restore. Currently, we need to do it manually and it takes a very long time. This is a critical issue, but we are working with HPE on it. Also, the hardware is from HPE and the software is from another company that is part of HPE and this causes some problems. So, if we have any issue with the hardware, it’s solved quickly. But, if we have any issue with the software, for example, with the console, we need to reschedule the jobs or there is a delay in a job, we need to go back to that company through HPE. This takes time. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability is fine. How is customer service and technical support? We use technical support quite a bit and we are not so satisfied with them. I rate them 3/5. What other advice do I have? HPE introduced us to this solution. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-01-18T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We switched to HP because we needed a VTL solution with deduplication. Valuable Features VTL with deduplication because with deduplication, you can have spare storage space. Room for Improvement Interoperability with other vendors backup software. Use of Solution I've used it for two and a half years. Deployment Issues In the beginning, we had a lot of problems with bad firmware. Stability Issues We had problems with the various firmware versions. Scalability Issues No issues scaling the product. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: It is very high. Technical Support: Customer service is very high. Previous Solutions We did, and we switched because we needed a VTL solution with deduplication. Initial Setup It was simple, especially to integrate it with our existing EMC network solution. Implementation Team We implemented it in-house. Other Solutions Considered We also looked at EMC DataDomain. We chose StoreOnce because it was cheaper by more than 60,000 Euros. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from With deduplication on the virtual tape library were achieving a compression ratio of 16:1 which means we can keep the backups for six months. Valuable Features 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. Improvements to My Organization * 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. Stability Issues Since the staged back-up happens in the background there is no impact on the network. Scalability Issues 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. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: 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. Technical Support: 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. Previous Solutions Our storage infrastructure was founded on an HP StorageWorks EVA 4400 disk array and when demand increased, a further EVA 6550 array was added. Initial Setup 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. Implementation Team We did the implementation ourselves. ROI 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. Disclaimer: IT Central Station has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
Date published: 2015-06-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Integrates with other software and reduces the backup windows. What is most valuable? The valuable feature is the ability to work with the Veeam software to reduce the backup windows. How has it helped my organization? The benefits are more capacity in the backup server and the ability to retain backups. What needs improvement? I would like to see better integration with Veeam software. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It demonstrates high stability and it can integrative with Veeam and other HPE products such as 3PAR. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability is very high and you can get more space if you need to grow. How is customer service and technical support? I have not used technical support. Which solutions did we use previously? We knew we needed to invest in this solution because we needed to fine-tune our backup windows. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We are not evaluating other companies. When selecting a vendor, we look for reliability in the market, the capacity for growth, and how the company integrates their products. What other advice do I have? I recommend this product because of the easy integration with Veeam and other backup products. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-06-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Initial configuration into the network needs improvement but deduplication features are valuable. Valuable Features The ease of use and configuration once implemented and the deduplication features. Improvements to My Organization 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. Room for Improvement 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. Use of Solution For well over 1 year now. Deployment Issues 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. Stability Issues No issues during initial config, can't say there were any stability issues. Scalability 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). Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: No issues with customer service, quick and correct. Technical Support: They could answer all our questions and helped us to get going without too much time and effort. Previous Solutions 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 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. Implementation Team As mentioned earlier, the solution was implemented along with HP, their level of expertise was above par. ROI Too soon to tell, but initial reports tell us it definitely will save us a lot of money, on tapes and tape handling alone. Other Solutions Considered 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. Other Advice 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... Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-11-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We have a very small team, so it just frees up the guys to do other things. Valuable Features We've only just put it in, so I think for us it's a more efficient way of storage. Time efficient, man power, all of it. We have a very small team, so it just frees up the guys to do other things. Improvements to My Organization It's only been in for a couple of weeks, so can't really comment too much about what it's done yet. Room for Improvement I'd like it to be quicker. Stability Issues So far, we've had no issues. Customer Service and Technical Support One of my engineers might have called, but I haven't. Previous Solutions We were using EMC, and my engineers put some pressure on me. They said we need to spend some money, so that's how I knew we needed to get something else. Other Solutions Considered It really came down to relationships. At the time it wasn't just going from EMC, it was also going from Cisco to HPE Networking. We went through a pretty good process, where we talked about our needs and requirements, and also comfort levels of technology change. Some of my engineers were a little reluctant to move away from Cisco. But HPE ecame and sat down and just said "We'll do whatever it takes. What do you need? What are your concerns?" Just worked with us in real detail: able to understand what our concerns were, where we were going, and making sure that the engineers were made comfortable. But also making sure, which was the last part which comes across the line, was that the technology was what we needed, was enough for growth. Whereas Cisco was just a "here's a quote, sent it to us" which I think for me swung me over to HP. The commitment to the customer. Other Advice Think about the next 10 years, where are you heading. Personally, I say HPE's a pretty strong organization. They send the right messages, saying the right things. They seem like a very digital company which is all about customer, and that stuff matters to me, whereas some of the competitors, they don't have that mindset. Cisco definitely doesn't have that mindset. I really think long-term about. Sure, Cisco had a lot more features, but we didn't really need them. So, that made the decision easier. For me, when I think about HPE, think about longevity. You want to invest in technology, you're almost investing in the company. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-06-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It has provided us with easier and faster backup, and recovery solutions. Valuable Features * Deduplication * Performance Improvements to My Organization It has provided us with easier and faster backup, and recovery solutions. Room for Improvement It needs better integration with third party backup applications. Use of Solution I've used it for three years. Deployment Issues No issues encountered. Stability Issues No issues encountered. Scalability Issues No issues with the systems size from VSA (Virtual appliance) to a four couplet system. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: 7.5/10. Technical Support: 8/10. Previous Solutions Previously, we used tape systems for backup and recovery. Initial Setup It's an easy installation if you start with the virtual appliance (VSA). There are also white papers and best practices available. Implementation Team We did it in-house. ROI We have saved time as less is spent on tape handling, and there are fewer hardware issues than with a tape. Also, the ROI has been achieved with faster backup and restores. I would say it takes around 18 months to get ROI. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing A one TB VSA is available for free and there is no need for day-to-day administration, just daily check of backup applications and jobs. Other Solutions Considered We also looked at EMC Datadomain. Other Advice Deduplication ratio depends on your data types. Do a Proof of Concept with the free VSA to test the product. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-04-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Speed of backups is the main value for us compared to what we were previously using. Valuable Features For StoreOnce, we are using it in order to backup some databases. It works fine, and I think it's not a production device, but it still works fine. The time to do the backups is great for us because the last backups we used to have took at least 8 - 10 hours and at the moment the backups takes one hour or less. Improvements to My Organization It helps us with the backups of our corporate database in order to have the information backed up in case of disaster. It's great for us to take the information in minutes, instead of hours. Room for Improvement It's not big, but it could be smaller and take up less space in the data center. I saw some devices here that are smaller with more power, and I think that StoreOnce could be the same. Stability Issues I think that we've had it for two years and it doesn't have any issue at this moment. Customer Service and Technical Support I've never had to contact tech support. Previous Solutions We had an EMC Data Domain device, but I don't remember the model of it. We switched because HP promised us that it would be easier to manage, easy to implement with the technicals details we use each day. Initial Setup It was quick and easy to install. Other Solutions Considered The time to implement, the time to acquire the solution, integrating with our infrastructure was easy and the price was very good. Other Advice You need to work with a partner that knows the solutions deeply in order to implement the services and the solution well. It allowed us to provide the services that our customers needs. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-07-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Using virtual tapes, we have accelerated backup and recovery of our solutions. Improvements to My Organization Using virtual tapes, we can accelerate the backup/recovery of our solutions. Room for Improvement The CIFS share service performance is really poor; it is a nightmare. Instead of CIFS we prefer to use NFS. When presenting CIFS shares to Linux hosts and I tried copying a huge quantity of files, performance was so slow, terribly slow... This was not an issue when I used NFS. Fortunately, I'm not the only one with this problem: http://www.v-strange.de/index.php/hardware/14-cifs-performance-problem-on-hp-storeonce-systems. Fortunately, too, it seems to be a firmware matter. I'll be looking to solve that problem. Use of Solution I have been using it for 14 months. Deployment Issues I have not encountered any deployment or scalability issues. The product is really stable. Customer Service and Technical Support Technical support is great! No problem; fast solutions. Initial Setup Initial setup was so easy, really easy. Implementation Team We implemented it through a vendor; it was a smooth deployment. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing To be honest, the product is expensive to acquire and costs have been growing since then. Other Solutions Considered It is at the top of its class, in my experience. Other Advice It's a great product but it is really expensive. Expanding its capacities is sometimes more expensive than buying new storage. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's reduced costs for storage based on the previous deduplication hardware we were using, although scalability can become an issue once you grow past the capacity of a single cluster pair. Valuable Features Deduplication and many integration options ie. NAS, VTL, Catalyst. Improvements to My Organization It's reduced costs for storage based on the previous deduplication hardware we were using. Use of Solution We've been using it for two years alongside HP Data Protector. Scalability Issues Scalability can become an issue once you grow past the capacity of a single cluster pair. This will mean additional controllers and licensing and can be fairly costly. Customer Service and Technical Support Very good support for the hardware. Previous Solutions We moved from the previous solution due to the support cost of the old product. Initial Setup Initial setup of the hardware was fairly straightforward. Implementation Team Implemented through a third party vendor. There were some complications with delivery of the units and site surveys not being completed. After those issues things were fine. Other Solutions Considered We evaluated this against other products and based (mainly) on cost we selected the HP solution. Other Advice While we have been very happy with StoreOnce, HP Data Protector leaves a lot to be desired. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-10-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from In my previous organization, it removed the need for manual tape swapping. Also, offsite tape storage is replaced by replication to a different/central site/device. Valuable Features 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. Improvements to My Organization 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 ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ) B6200/B6500 or even some lower-end one, such as 4900. Room for Improvement 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. Use of Solution I have been using it for 4+ years. Deployment Issues I have not encountered any deployment issues. Stability Issues Some models are shipped with one power supply by default, even when redundant PSUs are supported in pairs; be aware of that. Scalability Issues 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 and Technical Support Customer Service: Customer service is great. Technical Support: Technical support is great. Previous Solutions We switched because of company policy, the tapes aged, etc. Initial Setup Initial setup was straightforward. Implementation Team I was within support team, which did implement as well as support the solution. ROI Huge. Simply eliminating the need for tape changers returned the cost of the hardware within less than half a year. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing Get an expert who knows the products, so you can get the best prices possible for both DP ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-data-protector ) 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. Other Advice Make sure architecture is planning properly, e.g., centralised or decentralised HPE ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ) DP Cell Managers give you some quite different options and etc. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The tiering functionality saves the company money; system automatically decides to which storage type the data should be written. Due to growth, our data centre, including storage, reached its limits. Two key requirements for the new infrastructure were scalability and flexibility, to allow the IT side of mergers to run as efficiently as possible. Reliability with an up-time of at least 99.9 per cent was also essential. Data restore following a technical or logic error needed to be considerably faster than in the past. We also wanted to achieve as high a level of standardisation as possible so we could easily outsource the systems to a housing provider if this became necessary in the future. Following a detailed tender and selection process, we concluded that an HP Converged Infrastructure could fulfill our requirements. The deciding factor was the way the backup solution worked with the storage system in the fibre channel-based storage network we wanted. The HP Converged Infrastructure consists of two HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems, two HP StoreOnce 4430 backup systems, HP Data Protector software for storing and restoring data, an MSL4048 tape library for long term archiving of data and multiple Brocade SAN switches for the HP BladeSystem for the storage network, increasing the band width from 4GB to 8 GB per second. The HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems were provided with 64 terabytes of storage capacity. These are currently 70 per cent full. That fits with our business requirements. We have enough space for both organic growth as well as for future company purchases. We can also expand the HP 3PAR StoreServ quickly and easily at any time by adding further nodes, which gives us a very high degree of flexibility. To ensure the high availability of the system,we fitted the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems with the replication and automatic transparent failover software features. If hardware outages or entire data centre outage happens, Storage services are automatically assumed by other components – without any loss of service. The tiering functionality saves the company money as the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 automatically decides to which storage type the data should be written (tiered according to speed and therefore price), depending on data access. We are now starting to use the reporting functionality of the storage solution. We want to control the infrastructure proactively in terms of IT service management. The monitoring and reporting functionalities help us with this. The entire system has been very stable right from the start – and also very fast. Our customers have noticed from our considerably faster response times that we have completely redesigned our data centre. Today, even the slowest tiering level in the storage system is faster than our old solution. The company intends to achieve further cost savings on storage with its backup solution: The hard drive space required for the databases was reduced by 50 per cent just by using the corresponding adaptor from the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage system to Microsoft SQL server. This is because the HP Data Protector software stores the productive database data online to the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage system via the connector, without having to create a backup. We have also implemented further connectors to VMware vCenter and Microsoft Exchange Server. To ensure that the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage system will always be up to date, we decided to use HP Proactive Care Services. This service reduces the IT department’s workload as we no longer have to keep track of patches and software upgrades ourselves. HP does this for us. We have already experienced the benefits of this. An HP technician contacted us and updated the system without limiting our operations at all. It went fantastically well. We can also administer the storage with just two employees. That was unthinkable before. We have a high-tech solution in the data centre which will support as we follow the company strategy in the coming years. It is also a great foundation for existing IT projects such as big data and ERP consolidation. Disclaimer: IT Central Station has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
Date published: 2015-04-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We needed to consolidate a particular aspect of storage but we also wanted to store more data and increase the retention time. Valuable Features The feature we were looking for was deduplication. Now, thanks to Catalyst containers, we have federated deduplication across all our remote sites. We wanted something that would easily fit in our infrastructure. As we were familiar with HP products ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ), it was very convenient for us to use tools we were used to such as iLO, Insight Manager, and so on. Improvements to My Organization Before we used HP StoreOnce ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ), the backup was stored on DAS, which was fine until you have a problem in a disk and lose all your data. So, we needed to consolidate this particular aspect of storage but we also wanted to store more data and increase the retention time. The native replication feature allowed us to take it to the next level of consolidation with automated off-site replication. We now have site-level recovery as opposed to the disk-level recovery we had 3 years ago. Room for Improvement The product is doing just fine as it is now. An improvement would be an improved deduplication algorithm. Use of Solution We've been using the solution for 3 years now. We added a StoreOnce 4700 unit last year so that we can replicate all the data in our datacenter. It is something we were thinking about for a long time. The support of Catalyst container by Veeam Backup was the thing that was lacking until last year. Deployment Issues Due to the huge number of sites we have, we needed something easy to deploy. Configuring a new unit is a matter of minutes. Stability Issues I was wondering at the time if we would have to deal with some hardware failure somewhere every other week and it turns out it's a solid solution, we encountered very few problem regarding hardware. We have a 7/1 deduplication rate, which in our environment is pretty descent. Scalability Issues We're currently using StoreOnce 2620 & 2700 on our 175 remote sites which are replicated on a Storeonce 4700 in our datacenter. The thing that I was afraid of when we chose StoreVirtual was the huge number of sites and therefore the number of StoreOnce units. When it comes to scalability, expansion shelves are available for all models and HP provides a VSA version of StoreOnce, which is free of charge up to 1TB, so it is satisfying for us. Customer Service and Technical Support Upgrade first, talk next. If you happen to be out of date regarding FW or patches, then you are the problem and not the unit. Basically, that's how it works at HP. That being said, we have h+4 SLA on these units and the customer service never failed us so far. Previous Solutions Before we started using StoreOnce, every site had its own backup solution and its own storage for it, so we wanted to harmonize all of that. We were looking for a solution which would provide features like deduplication, native replication, ease of use and available on VSA as well. It turns out StoreOnce was the only solution at the time. We had proposals reflecting different approaches, with different products bundled all together, or single products with a workaround for the one missing feature. So we evaluated an Avamar grid, as well both physical and VSA. The deduplication rate was higher with Avamar ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/emc-avamar_vs_hpe-storeonce ) and the replication worked out of the box, but if we wanted to stay in our budget range, we needed to go with a central Avamar grid and VSA on DAS on the remote site. We went for StoreOnce because we didn't want our backup to rely on the remote site WAN connection and because the local VSA on DAS was not really an improvement. Initial Setup It was straightforward. The very first unit was configured in 15 minutes and was ready to go. Implementation Team We have a staff dedicated for that, so that was an in-house job. The StoreOnce unit runs on Linux. We have Linux admins, and it is frustrating for them to see that the product works out of the box and there's no need to log in using SSH. Therefore, I recommend in-house implementation. It's easy, and the iLO UI is very user-friendly. ROI We don't have financial ROI. Our goal was to consolidate the infrastructure at all cost. Other Advice There's a VSA version free of charge up to 1TB, so just try it. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The most valuable feature is the deduplication ability, but file sharing is also really good. Valuable Features The most valuable is the deduplication ability, but file sharing is also really good. Improvements to My Organization We saw less capital outlay after implementing the solution. Room for Improvement For subsequent models, I would like HP to improve deduplication rations for tiny files numbering near a trillion, which they do in our business. StoreOnce doesn’t work for our class of data, which is small, and needs to include more genomic and medical research as test cases. Use of Solution I have been using StoreOnce D2D for four years. Stability Issues Stability was good but undersized for what we needed. We weren't able to de-duplicate what we needed. Scalability Issues It was not able to scale for us; we had to buy another solution (X9000) to store copies. Customer Service and Technical Support I found HP to be helpful, but they asked too many questions and were not really able to help our business. Previous Solutions We were in need of backing up petabytes of data for medical databases. Initial Setup We had experience with the solution, so it was relatively simple. Other Solutions Considered * EMC * Comvault Other Advice The most important criteria for us is reliability. If you work for a medical research institute or something with very small files, then this solution may not be for you. Your best move is to do a POC. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-06-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The cost savings of not having to continually purchase additional shelf space has been the driving force of staying with this product. Valuable Features The deduplication feature is awesome. The storage space has been cut down by at least 50% and on some instance greater reduction has been achieved. Here is a current example showing the space savings: Actual User Data Store 44.9TB, Actual Size on Disk 4.0TB with an 11.3 dedupe ratio. This was only one of my libraries on the StoreOnce 4430 device. Improvements to My Organization Please refer to the answer above about valuable features. The space saving on storage of actual user data also has a cost savings attached to it. We do not have to extend the actual storage space as quickly now due to the space savings of the deduplication feature. Room for Improvement The auto load balancing between VTL Libraries has been not as efficient as it should have been. I have manually load balanced between my libraries to maintain a tight control.There have also been bug fixes in the past for their auto load balancing feature. I would like to see this greatly improved so that I feel that it is trustworthy enough to utilize this feature. Use of Solution I've used it for one and half years in an enterprise environment with HP DataProtector v7.0 Deployment Issues No issues during deployment of the 4430 device into the enterprise environment. Stability Issues Not with this current model 4430, but with a previous model we did have stability issues and these have been resolve with the 4430 model. Scalability Issues No issues with scalability. We purchased an additional 20TB shelf with the 4430 device (which came with a 20TB shelf included in the package we purchased). Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: HP’s customer service is outstanding. Turnaround time on parts for us is four hours and we also have them in less time than that. The HP service representatives are knowledgeable, friendly and are very easy to speak to. They are people who don't read from a script, but actually have a working knowledge of the equipment. Technical Support: It's outstanding. Previous Solutions No, and we chose StoreOnce as we are currently an HP enterprise environment. Initial Setup In most ways it was straightforward, however, you need to be an experienced network administrator to install this device. Implementation Team It was done as an in-house implementation. However, we currently work with an HP partner in all our enterprise purchases. They're called High Performance Technologies, Inc. in Palm City, Florida, and the IT team at this business are outstanding and they all keep up to date with their HP certifications. They work with HP to obtain the best pricing for the equipment we need to ascertain. With this business relationship, comes years of trust and we know that they understand our enterprise network topology and make recommendations based off that long term knowledge. ROI The cost savings of not having to continually purchase additional shelf space has been the driving force of staying with this outstanding product. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing The original cost was approximately $250,000. Included in that was the device itself and 40TB of storage space. Other Solutions Considered We did evaluate other options but due to the fact that HP has set the standard, we stayed with them. Other Advice I've had little to no issues with either the StoreOnce 4430 device or the DataProtector software. I would highly recommend this type of backup system for enterprise environments. Read the documentation provided by HP on their website and research the web to avoid any possible issues during implementation. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-21T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is possible to use Ethernet and Fabric at the same time with the same device. Valuable Features The Catalyst Store with Data Protector: * It is possible to use Ethernet and Fabric at the same time with the same device. * The configuration of Data Protector is easy. * The media administration in Data Protector was simplified. * The recovery of the cell manager in a disaster is more easy. * It is possible to see the information of backup task in the StoreOnce ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ) device; before that, this information was only in the Data Protector database. Improvements to My Organization We implemented Catalyst with Data Protector in March 2016; after the change, the recovery process time of one or two days was reduced to 30 minutes in most of cases. Room for Improvement I think the integration with Data Protector and virtual environments is an area for improvement. Use of Solution I have been using it for five months. Stability Issues I did not encounter any stability issues. Scalability Issues I have not yet encountered any scalability ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce/by_topic/scalability_issues ) issues. Customer Service and Technical Support I think that technical support is a weak point. I feel that technical support does not know the product. The call center is prepared to support a hardware error, but when we have any doubts regarding a new configuration, they have the same doubts. In this case, we need to contact some friends at HPE ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ). Previous Solutions We previously used the same StoreOnce, but without Catalyst. Catalyst is the sum of NFS plus SAN disk in the same backup repository. Initial Setup Configuration is very simple; the problem was changing the minds of the operators. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing For a small configuration, it is expensive, but if you need to backup many servers with a lot of data, I think it is a good price. Other Solutions Considered I evaluated EMC ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/emc-data-domain_vs_hpe-storeonce ) before choosing this product. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:My company is an HPE partner.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Compression and replication are the features of this product that are the most valuable to me. Valuable Features Compression and replication are the features of this product ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ) that are the most valuable to me. Improvements to My Organization We moved from MSL and VSL, building a number of virtual libraries with different LTO formats and removing hundreds of physical tapes that we replaces with virtual replicated tapes. Room for Improvement I would like to see improvements regarding segmentation or the size limitations per library. Use of Solution I have used this solution for 15 months. Deployment Issues Segmentation was one of the requirements. The HP ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ) team promised us that it is possible, but it wasn't available. Customer Service and Technical Support Technical support ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce/by_topic/technical_support ) is excellent. Previous Solutions We previously used MSL and VSL, and we moved to this product because it supports virtualization (D2D). Initial Setup Initial setup was very simple. Implementation Team We implemented it in-house. I think the solution was easy to implement using HP Data Protector 8.01 at the beginning. The tricky part is the upgrades. I recommend upgrading the FW to latest the stable release before configuring. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing The price is good. If you are going to replicate, buy the two-way license. Other Advice I recommend this product. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It integrates with our backup solution, Veeam. We use it to replicate all our site backups. What is most valuable? For us, we can save a lot on storage costs for doing backups. It integrates seamlessly with our backup solution, which is a third-party solution, not from HPE. We use Veeam; and StoreOnce works with them. How has it helped my organization? It works great for backing up Windows. Backups are much quicker now. Previously, it took 15-16 hours every day. Now it takes 3-4 hours maximum. Replication of our site using Virtual Storage Appliance is really easy. We did not have any backup solution for our site before. Now, we just have Virtual Storage Appliance running on site almost without any configuration. We use it to replicate all our site backups. What needs improvement? I would like to see a better integration with Active Directory to identify users. Currently, we need to create separate accounts, so we need to have separate passwords to log in for assurance. It's not a big issue, but it is an issue. We would like to be able to use existing Active Directory accounts to directly authenticate users. There could always be better performance. There is a little bit to work on in this area. For how long have I used the solution? We’ve been using it for little more than a year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is stable. We hardly ever had an issues with it. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? When we started, it was already quite large, about 200 TBs. So far, we haven’t had any need to scale up. How is customer service and technical support? Technical support is quite efficient. We only had minor issues, but they were handled pretty quickly. Which solutions did we use previously? We built an almost entirely new IT infrastructure for a new stadium that we built. The new infrastructure had a lot more than it had before; so we knew we had to have a better backup solution. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was relatively easy. We didn’t need to do a lot. They were already pretty well-packaged out of the box. Aside from the configuration and integration with the backup solution, we didn't have much to do. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We looked at EMC, IBM, NetApp, and some others which I cannot recall at the moment. We are building an entirely new infrastructure. We chose HPE StoreOnce after considering the servers, the storage, and the backup all at the same time. HPE had a better global solution, especially in terms of the backup solution. What other advice do I have? Look into intuitive solutions for storage space. Deduplication is really efficient. You can do deduplication directly with Veeam, the backup software, side now. We save on network and bandwidth. The most important criteria for us when selecting a vendor was the integration of the old backup solution in the previous stadium, and the need to save on storage space. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It has given us the ability to run data straight from the device in case of a disaster. Valuable Features StoreOnce has the following advantages: * Fast backup * No need to manage and store tapes * Ability to run data straight from the device in case of a disaster * Reliable compared to weekly problems with tapes * The data is replicated to two remote locations Improvements to My Organization We have moved away from tape backup. Use of Solution I've used it for one year. Stability Issues We had one problem when data replication got stuck and we had to ask HP for help. Scalability Issues No issues encountered. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: It's very good. Technical Support: It's very good. Previous Solutions We only used a tape solution. We switched because tapes are too slow, prone to mechanical problems, tape management is a burden, and the time taken to do a restore is slow. Initial Setup It was easy. Also I did HPs StoreOnce training. Implementation Team HP installed the device for us, and showed us various configuration options. The team was very knowledgeable. Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing The initial cost was high, however, day to day costs are low. Other Solutions Considered I could not find a better product. Other Advice It is worth buying HP installation. It is difficult to estimate how much storage is needed as de-duplication depends on the type of data, so reserve extra money for expansions, and buy a model which can be expanded. Also, the StoreOnce course is very good. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-04-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from When using the dedupe feature, backups take up less space than they previously did. Valuable Features De-duplication is valuable because it is a technique to take backups of unique data only. We have to do backups on a daily and weekly basis, where the daily one is incremental and the weekly one is a full backup. When we ran this type of backup on a physical cartridge, it would take up a huge amount of space as there is no de-dupe with cartridges. When using de-dupe, backups take less space than they previously did, and this minimizes the costs to our company. Improvements to My Organization The de-duplication feature saves us storage space. Room for Improvement The performance could be improved. Use of Solution I've been using it for one and a half years. Deployment Issues No issues encountered. Stability Issues No issues encountered. Scalability Issues We're unable to expand our storage capabilities smoothly. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: It's good. Technical Support: We are not getting any direct support from HP, but we are getting support from their partner. The support is relatively good. Previous Solutions This is the first solution that we have used. Initial Setup It is straightforward. Implementation Team We used a vendor team who were 8/10. Other Solutions Considered This was done by the planning team. Other Advice I recommend using the upgraded version of this product. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Catalyst backup is used to back up Oracle databases, and provides very good throughput during backups What is our primary use case? Deduplication. As well, having Catalyst backups that are supported by HPE StoreOnce 6600 is very good for BURA. How has it helped my organization? It reduced larger backup windows where we have had to wait for days to complete one full backup of a larger database. What is most valuable? Catalyst backup is used to back up Oracle databases, and provides very good throughput during backups. What needs improvement? We are looking for Federated VTLs just like Federated Catalyst Store. Currently, VTLs can only be created on individual service sets and cannot be used to share the resources of other nodes. For how long have I used the solution? Three to five years. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2018-08-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Gives us confidence in the ability to make a full recovery What is our primary use case? We use this as a backup solution in conjunction with Veeam Availability Suite. How has it helped my organization? 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. What is most valuable? The deduplication feature in this product is amazing. What needs improvement? This product would be improved with the inclusion of more features to security or WORM. For how long have I used the solution? One to three years. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-05-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from You can take your snapshots from your 3PAR and you can back it up directly to your StoreOnce What is most valuable? The good feature about StoreOnce is, its speed. It's integration with 3PAR, so you can do express backups. You can take your snapshots from your 3PAR and you can back it up directly to your StoreOnce. The other nice feature about that is, you can then take your data, and if you wanted to, you can replicate it to another StoreOnce. Even from there, you can have that ... Then you can also offload it Tape. With 3PAR and with StoreOnce, we kind of have an end to end solution for the customer. The other nice thing about StoreOnce is, it supports VTL. You can do a VTL type configuration on your StoreOnce, you can do Catalyst stores, and then you can also do NAS stores. What needs improvement? This is just a personal thing for me as it comes down to documentation and giving clear information. If you want to do express backup from 3PAR to StoreOnce, you need the RMC license, you need Virtual Copy on 3PAR, and then you need the Catalyst license. I've been to a bunch of tech talks, and they never really say this specifically. It's in the quick specs, but I remember my boss asking "What are you adding that license for," and I said, "It's required. Here's the documentation, but I don't think the message is clear enough." You know what I mean? I understand people need to understand the technology, but when it comes down to it, if you're creating a parts list, a build that's supposed to go into a customer's site and work, if you don't know all the parts and pieces, then you've got a failed implementation. That's just my personal view. What other advice do I have? It doesn't replace traditional backup, but if you want a solution that can back up your snapshots quickly and reliably, then StoreOnce is good. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It provides quick recovery to the organization, but the software is sometimes unstable. What is most valuable? Agnostic backups. How has it helped my organization? Quick recovery. What needs improvement? StoreOnce software is sometimes unstable. For how long have I used the solution? 10 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Sometimes unstable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? No. How is customer service and technical support? At times not good, other times good. How was the initial setup? Complex. What other advice do I have? Do a detailed inside PoC. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-09-18T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Each application has its own virtual library to increase the deduplication ratio. Valuable Features: * It has very simple architecture compared to the old HP VLS * It also provides ease of management and is easy to configure Improvements to My Organization: Each application has its own virtual library to increase the deduplication ratio. Room for Improvement: * Dedupe algorithms * More control from HP data protector software Use of Solution: We've installed three StoreOnce appliances. Deployment Issues: Until now we did not have any problems with StoreOnce. However, have had a problem with the HP Data Protector. In order to import tapes from StoreOnce, we had to identify the ID of the items in each store on the appliances, and then create them manually on the HP Data Protector. Other Advice: I would advise you that if they have a remote site, (e.g. two StoreOnce appliances) to buy the Catalyst License for faster performance, since you will have a single engine of deduplication for both sites. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:HP Partner
Date published: 2015-09-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The most valuable features for us are the ease of use, the reliability, and the deduplication. What is most valuable? 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. How has it helped my organization? 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 What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? We have been using HPE StoreOnce appliances for just over two years now. What do I think about the stability of the solution? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? 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. Which other solutions did I evaluate? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We're partners.
Date published: 2017-05-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We bought it as a stack, racked it together, and it brought efficiency in terms of management, which means we've needed less resources. What is most valuable? It's a leading-edge technology with the capabilities it brings. We need to buy less of it, which means it's more economical. We also really benefit from the GUI capabilities. We're also able to create service stacks that are beneficial across other HP products. How has it helped my organization? It makes it a lot more cost-effective because you're not buying ten pieces of technology separately. We bought it as a stack, racked it together, and it brought efficiency in terms of management, which means we've needed less resources. What was my experience with deployment of the solution? While the setup was simple because of HP's involvement, it's been complex to run because of a third-party. They put it in a shiny new case and started changing some things. If they'd have left it alone, it would have been fine. Our partner brought the technology to us, bought it on our behalf, and are running it on our behalf. They told us that they have a lot of knowledge and that they know how to run it, but in reality they don't and have not followed best practices. So now, they're kind of moved out. We're getting our hands around it ourselves, and it's behaving a lot better. What do I think about the stability of the solution? We're outsourced with a partner who recalls a larger amount of problems with the product. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We're able to scale it out to other centers. How is customer service and technical support? I've used my HP account team, if that counts as technical support. They've been fantastic. Which solutions did we use previously? For me it was very much a legacy decision. People who were originally involved are no longer with us. How was the initial setup? It was fairly simple to set up because we had HP involved. What about the implementation team? Our partner implemented it for us, and the results have not been good. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The price puts me off. It's definitely on the high side. What other advice do I have? Don't be fooled by other organizations' marketing. Do your homework and make sure it suits your needs. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-06-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It efficiently provides virtual and physical backups, and can also help with product development. Valuable Features * Industry-leading backup * Deduplication technology * Efficient backup * Disaster recovery operations * It's very valuable for virtual backup Improvements to My Organization Excellent and seamless virtual and physical backup. If given the opportunity, it also helps with product development. Room for Improvement It needs to be more versatile to run our tests smoothly. Use of Solution I've used it for one year. Deployment Issues No issues encountered. Stability Issues No issues encountered. Scalability Issues It's 10/10. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: It's 10/10. Technical Support: It's 10/10. Previous Solutions We previously used QNAP, and it just wasn't enough for our needs. Initial Setup It was simple to setup. ROI It's 10/10. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-07-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It sends less traffic over the network when you use the catalyst store, so it causes less congestion on the network. Valuable Features The deduplication and the savings you get from that. We actually get a better performance with the source-side deduplication with catalyst store. Improvements to My Organization It sends less traffic over the network when you use the catalyst store, so it causes less congestion on the network. Room for Improvement Maybe when we do restores for Veeam, the way it has to re-hydrate all the deduplicated data, if there's a way to speed that up that would be a good feature, some kind of algorithm or something. Stability Issues It's stable enough for our backup product. There's a couple of issues with the CIFS we were using with Veeam, but we're trying to use the catalyst stores now that Veeam 9 came out, and it seems to be working better so far, but we just started doing that like a month ago, so we're still in the testing phase. Scalability Issues It's good. You can scale out if you have the money and you can add a lot to it. Customer Service and Technical Support They've actually got really good tech support. If you have to do an upgrade, they do a remote session and they'll guide you through it. Previous Solutions We were using VLS, which was an HP product. It was basically a virtual tape library, and just basically straight to tape. They weren't performing well, and it was actually really slow. Other Solutions Considered That was before my time, so I'm not sure. Other Advice The only problems I ever saw was with the CIFs was the performance but like I said, we're trying to do the catalyst now. It's a required deduplication, and say your backup software doesn't do it or your backup software doesn't perform that great with deduplication, I'd look at StoreOnce, because it does all the deduplication on the backend. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-07-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Deduplication Alghorithams still require enhancement but it has a very flexible integration with HP Data Protector. Valuable Features * StoreOnce Catalyst Store * VTL Emulation * Extensive disaster recovery options * Federated deduplication Improvements to My Organization Due to high speed and multiple simultaneous backup session our backup window is reduced remarkably, data throughputs are mentioned follows: * Up to 100 TB/hr of backup performance with StoreOnce Catalyst * Up to 40 TB/hr of native backup performance * Up to 40 TB/hr of restore performance Room for Improvement Deduplication Alghorithams still require enhancement. Use of Solution We have been using HP Data Protector for almost 5 years. Deployment Issues HP Solution delivery team implement this solution, deployment was quite smooth within time constraints. Stability Issues No such issues faced. Scalability Issues 768 TB raw (512 TB useable). Good enough for enterprise wide backup solutions. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: Excellent, because of local presence of HP is KSA. Technical Support: Very Good. Previous Solutions I have working experience with EMC Data Domain. HP StoreOnce is offering almost the same features. It has a very flexible integration with HP Data Protector. Initial Setup It was a straightforward procedure. Implementation Team HP Implementation team delivered this solution. Other Solutions Considered Yes, EMC Data Domain. Other Advice It is better to opt for HP implementation services also. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We wanted to deliver short backup times and provide client’s systems with immunity from backup errors; enables companies to automate backup processes. One of our outsourcing services is to replicate the customer’s backup to our backup center. It’s aimed at customers who run their own server room and business critical systems that require daily backup but who can’t afford to have their own secondary datacenters. We sought a solution that would allow our customers to perform simple and fully automated backup. Additionally, the new solution would also help customers to replicate data to our datacenter, ensuring that remotely stored copies of their backup data are held off-site. We needed a solution that would provide safe data storage for itself and its clients, ensure continuity of operation in the event of a disaster and enable it to extend its service offering. We also wanted an application that would deliver short backup times and provide client’s systems with immunity from backup errors or intentional human actions. We decided to purchase and implement the HP StoreOnce Backup system. The decision was based on price, functionality, reduced maintenance costs, low power consumption, simple management and scalability. We were also impressed by the HP Care Pack service covering the solution. HP StoreOnce Backup ensures the protection of data from drives in datacenters and branch offices. It enables companies to automate and consolidate backup processes for multiple servers in a single rack-mounted solution while increasing reliability through the reduction of errors that can occur during manual operations. All HP StoreOnce Backup systems feature software deduplication which can deliver a twentyfold reduction of the disk space required to store backups without impacting quality, enabling economic and long term storage of data on disk. They also provide effective replication of data over the network. Through HP StoreOnce federated deduplication technology, data transfers across the network are reduced and only require low bandwidth links. This provides an economical method of transferring backup data outside the company for disaster recovery. Storing a larger number of backups on disk for a long time creates a higher level of data availability. This facilitates the quick restoration of lost or corrupted files and reduces downtime. Through the use of a disk-based system rather than sequential tapes or an autoloader module the time to perform backups and restores is greatly reduced. HP StoreOnce Catalyst enables customers to deduplicate data before sending it to a centralized HP StoreOnce Backup system. When using the latest HP StoreOnce Backup solution, centralized management of application-level backup supports a backup rate of 100TB/hour. HP StoreOnce automates the process of creating backups, enabling a more efficient management solution for data protection. Customers using our solutions do not require an employee to handle a tape library, which means that it’s no longer necessary to transport tapes from the server to a safe place. In addition, HP StoreOnce solves the problem of building a costly backup environment. Our replication datacenter can serve many customers and has a strict security policy. Data restore performance is also a priority. HP StoreOnce Backup provides quick access to backup and the ability to immediately restore data. It can restore data at up to 119 per cent of the rate of the backup performance. In case of accident or error the restore times from drives are just minutes or hours. In the case of traditional tape backup systems this could be hours or days. It’s equally fast for backup. On drives all the information is immediately ready for use, but in the tape case, first tape must be recovered from the storage, put in the library, searched to find the corresponding section and then restoring can start. The new solution is safe, efficient and cost effective. Replication creates a second copy of each backup. As a result, the probability of losing both a production system and our client’s backup copies is close to zero. Therefore, more and more of our customers are switching from operating their own backup environment and choosing a solution based upon Backup-as- a-Service principles. At the moment we are in the process of expanding our HP StoreOnce system. More disk space will allow us to offer backup services to an even greater number of customers. Disclaimer: IT Central Station has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
Date published: 2015-04-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We were previously using a different solution but our storage needs grew. Valuable Features It performs pretty well with minimal to no issues. Improvements to My Organization 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. Room for Improvement 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. Use of Solution I've used it for four years. Stability Issues It is pretty stable; excellent, in fact. I had one very minimal hard-drive failure. Scalability Issues We recently added more and it went very well. It's easy to add to this product. Customer Service and Technical Support 8/10 for both. Issues were dealt with quickly and efficiently. Previous Solutions We were previously using a different solution but our storage needs grew and we decided we needed a new solution. Initial Setup It was straightforward. Implementation Team We had an HP engineer come in for implementation. He was excellent. Other Solutions Considered Dell and IBM. We chose HP because of the price and the vendor support. Other Advice 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. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-06-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from The greatest benefit to us has been lower costs than our previous solution. Valuable Features * Redundancy * Ease of use * Scalability * Disaster recovery Improvements to My Organization The greatest benefit to us has been lowering costs. Room for Improvement I'd like to see the following features added in: * More detailed reporting * More granular reporting * More features in the CLI Stability Issues Excellent. Scalability Issues Excellent. Customer Service and Technical Support Excellent. There has been an integrated partnership with the ability to answer any and all questions. Previous Solutions We were using a different solution, but it was too costly so we needed to switch. Initial Setup The initial setup was straightforward. HP took a hands-off approach, which was good, and they let us do a lot of it on our own. We therefore didn’t have to do cross-training and we were able to do a lot of trial and error, which was good for us as well. Other Solutions Considered We also looked at EMC. Other Advice Most important criteria to look for includes: * Price * Features * Functionality * Ease of use Definitely look at this solution as a viable option as it is cost effective and reliable. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-06-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Adhoc restores are now resolved in a sensible time frame Valuable Features: Deduplication Improvements to My Organization: Adhoc restores are now resolved in a sensible time frame Room for Improvement: Initial setup is done via ssh connection and not web based, and the web based management is a little less appealing visually than the previous incarnation Use of Solution: 18 months Deployment Issues: No Stability Issues: No Scalability Issues: No Initial Setup: Straight forward enough after reading the manual Implementation Team: In-house ROI: 3 years Other Advice: Go for it Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We're an HP Partner
Date published: 2014-09-21T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We brought it in for the dedup technology and since we were looking to get better backup times . What is most valuable? 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. How has it helped my organization? The D2D capabilities have speeded backups. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? We are on our third generation of devices. Its been around 5 years. What was my experience with deployment of the solution? Early on, the firmware had some issues, but it has been steadily improved by HPE. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It's very stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? 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. How is customer service and technical support? 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. How was the initial setup? 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. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? 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. What other advice do I have? 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. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2016-06-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A fast, efficient, and cost-saving approach that assists with operational continuity What is our primary use case? Our primary use case is disk backup and dedupe technologies. How has it helped my organization? This solution has improved our organization because it provides faster backup, more efficient storage, and operational continuity. What is most valuable? I have found the dedupe technology to be the most valuable feature. It results in more efficient storage utilization, cutting capital expenditure in half. What needs improvement? The product could be improved with better support for data protection. For how long have I used the solution? More than five years. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We're sensitive to the amount of storage our backups take, so "datafication" is the most valuable feature for us. Valuable Features It's a solution that "datafies" backups so that only data is stored. Because we're sensitive to the amount of storage our backups take, "datafication" is the most valuable feature for us. Improvements to My Organization It saves storage space and the cost of investments in additional storage capacity. Data in other solutions is stored with other backup information. But with StoreOnce, only the data is stored, "datafying" the backup. This allows us to have a lot of backups within a small space, ultimately saving us money. Room for Improvement It needs to handle different kinds of media better. The system will fault sometimes when combining media with forms. It would be best if it could handle both at the same time. Deployment Issues StoreOnce deploys without any issues. Stability Issues We had a stability issue once because of development, but it's since been resolved. Scalability Issues We haven't had scalability issues. Again, we're able to store more data in a smaller space. Customer Service and Technical Support Technical support is responsive, but since we're installers, I expect it to be quicker. Initial Setup The initial setup is difficult for the normal user. Other Advice Think about your timelines, how you plan to use the load and read data, and how you will set up your system. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We're partners.
Date published: 2016-01-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from ?We wanted to restore the files we backed up, and on three occasions we were not able to. Improvements to My Organization It provided us help at a time when we needed a lot of storage quickly. It provided us that storage and it was really easy to deploy. Needless to say, we were very happy with that. Room for Improvement We're actually not happy with StoreOnce because we had to delete our backups three times. HP support was unable to recover them. We can't even log in to fix the problem ourselves. There was no indicator or any type of system alert that we would not be able to recover the files. We only figured that out once we couldn't backup anymore. When we tried to do a restart, it was not accessible. Deployment Issues We've had no issues with deployment. Stability Issues The stability improved as they released updates and patches for the software. Scalability Issues It's a good product to scale out because we can just buy more appliances and then we'll easily have more space. Customer Service and Technical Support Technical support is OK. When we determined that we couldn't recover the data in our StoreOnce, HP support said we should copy everything to another StoreOnce while fixing the defective one. We didn't have a spare StoreOnce, so this suggested fix was disappointing. Previous Solutions We used ArcServe GPT, but we didn't have enough space for traditional servers and ProLiant disks. Initial Setup The initial setup was straightforward. That's the idea of the product -- straightforward to implement. Other Advice We wanted to restore the files we backed up, and on three occasions we were not able to, and this got us in a lot of trouble, so I don't think I will take this risk again. Use something else. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Our Previous Hardware Was Starting To Fail And We Needed A More Stable Solution Valuable Features So I’m not the technician, I don’t look at all the different bells and all the things it does but for me the space that it uses is a valuable feature. The compression ratio has been much better than our past solution. Our SQL database backups are getting 56:1 compression ratio and to me that’s incredible. Some of the other stuff is a little less but we’ve got an average of 25:1 and that definitely beats what we had before. Improvements to My Organization Well benefits that I’m seeing on the StoreOnce are definitely the speed to recover. I can trust the data is there. When we had the quantums in the replication it was taking up to a month, the data would be partial. I trust the data so the benefit is that the data is there. If somebody calls me and needs data recovered, I know I have it. Room for Improvement New features, I don’t know. I expect HP to know that stuff and they’re asking the questions and other people smarter than me know what they need. It does what I need right now. There’s nothing that I could think of that it’s missing. Stability Issues I don’t like to talk about these things but so far stability on the system has been perfect, no issues. So I have two 4300’s and that came with Catalyst which was new to that platform. So when we had the systems put in the technician that came out actually hadn’t seem them before. So that was maybe the only hiccup but they did a great job installing them. I didn’t have to do anything with it and it’s been running ever since. Scalability Issues My impressions of scalability would be- I’ll never need to much add more space. They did a great deal with me, they doubled the space I asked for. I have enough room for years, but it also is very easily scalable. If I need to put in more trays I can. Customer Service and Technical Support We have not used technical support. Now HP as a whole, I have on other servers and things like that but for 3PAR I actually haven’t had to use support yet and, like I said it’s been going on two years. I’m happy with that, I’m sure if I had to call them they’d be right there. Previous Solutions The solution that we had for backups was Quantum for the software NetBackup. We still use NetBackup today, we like it but the quantums were aging. The maintenance agreement on the quantums were costing us a fortune and it was actually cheaper to get something new than keep the old one running. The quantums had gotten to a state where replication between them was no longer working. It would take about a month to replicate. Hardware was starting to fail on a regular basis and we knew we needed something. We’re a primary storage with EMC so we did look at Data Domain, but I buy a lot of stuff from HP. I knew their storage was great so let’s go look at the backup solution and HP just came in with a good price, I thought it was a good product. We bought the StoreOnce, so it’s two years ago now today and you know they’re running good ever since. Initial Setup It was extremely straightforward and I think this is typical for any of the vendors. I mean I don’t have all this experience but what you’re talking about is just a storage platform. It’s just disk so all they need to do is put it in, present it so that the backup can see it and that was done and it was done by the tech in just a couple of days, and we had it up and running in a week with a whole new backup catalog and it was very easy. Other Solutions Considered We did look at NetBackup, they had an appliance but it was about twice the cost. I didn’t look at Quantum because we didn’t have a lot of success with them in the past. I probably could’ve looked at them but it didn’t feel like a partnership with me with them. With everything that I buy from HP, I just don’t feel like a customer all the time, I kind of feel like a partner, and at Shields Health Care we like to collaborate and partner with people. Other Advice And it’s tough to say, what I wanted to look at was the data has to be accurate. And so if we’re backing up patient data, it’s critical. I mean everybody says their data is critical, in healthcare it’s critical. If I need to restore something I need to know it’s there, I need to know where it is, I need to know I can get it fast. With the quantums we also had a tape solution in place and those tapes were offsite, sometimes it would take a couple of days to get the data back. So what the StoreOnce allowed us to do was to also get off a tape, which was important to me. I don’t trust tape, a lot of people do. With StoreOnce, I know this data is there and I can get it quickly. The speed that we can recover files now is incredible. Even if it’s something small it’s not critical. Say a user loses an email and we backed it up the night before, you can get that email back in seconds. It used to take us a long time. We’d restore the entire mail store. You’re looking at the entire afternoon just to get some files back. We’re happy and with this upgrade we also upgraded NetBackup. So it’s not to say that the stuff that we had before wasn’t capable, it was time to get a new solution. I did a panel this week on going into backup solutions. One customer was still using tape, recommendations for them was to go to StoreOnce. For me the maintenance has been cheaper, the implementation was easy, it's small product that doesn’t take up much space in my data center, and it’s been reliable and out-performed what I had used previously. Peer reviews, anytime I pick up any new solution I like to know that a customer has already done, so I did reach out and talk to other folks that had been in the same situation. It’s tough to get the same exact situation but they had me call a couple hospitals in Boston. They all had great experiences, same ease of deployment that I saw, so those are very important to me. I like to know that someone else has done the same thing and had some results. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2015-08-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is easy to use and easy to configure. Setup was straightforward. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of StoreOnce are ease-of-use and ease-of-configuration when compared to the old IBM Tivoli family solution that we're using. How has it helped my organization? The benefits compared to the old solution are broad flexibility, ease-of-configuration, and ease-of-maintenance. We use it for part of our backup solution. What needs improvement? For us, nothing is missing at the moment and over time this will probably become clearer. We are going towards the cloud environment at some point or a hybrid cloud, so it could be something on that front, but we are not working with the cloud yet. For our purposes, it's functioning perfectly fine. We get the data we want from it. However, you need lot of knowledge before you start out. Maybe that could be improved. What do I think about the stability of the solution? We have not had any stability problems. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability is something that we haven't really needed to utilise but that was one key factor when we chose it over the other solutions. We haven't had to do any scaling yet. We have in the range of 10 to 20 TBs. How is customer service and technical support? We have not yet used technical support for StoreOnce, but we have been using it for less than a year. Which solutions did we use previously? We were basically upgrading the whole data center and we wanted to stick with one vendor as a provider of all the hardware. It was kind of logical to also look for a solution from HPE. How was the initial setup? I was involved in the initial setup. We had a technician from the partner who was providing the solution helping to set it up. It was very straightforward. I'm comparing to the old solution, which was kind of a pain in the neck. To set up the StoreOnce, all that was needed from us was the IP address and some background information on how we would use it. That was about it. From all the things that we set up in our data center at that time, this was probably the simplest. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Everybody wants to see lower cost, but pricing was competitive. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We also looked at Dell. We went with HPE because we want everything to be from one vendor. What other advice do I have? My advice is to use trusted advisors. You can only know so much. It's good to discuss things with an advisor. When looking for a vendor, the cost is, of course, important, but the partnering with HPE or another vendor and the range of products they offer is the most critical factor. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Deduplication features are great, especially on Catalyst stores. What is most valuable? * The product is very easy to use. * Deduplication features ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce/by_topic/valuable_features ) are great, especially on Catalyst stores. * We can also choose where to do the deduplication (source, media server or target). How has it helped my organization? The product has really improved the backup and restore for our infrastructure. It gives you great scalability options up to 1.7 PB and, according to the vendor, it can scale up to 34 PB using HPE ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ) inline deduplication. We were able to perform quick restores because of the elimination of tapes. It provides great features like VTL, NAS and StoreOnce Catalyst. What needs improvement? The support team needs improvement. Sometimes, it takes support a lot of time to fix the issue and majority of the cases have to be escalated to the lab. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using it the last five years. What was my experience with deployment of the solution? No Issues , Its pretty easy . What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability’s good. I have not encountered any stability issues. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I have not encountered any scalability issues. How is customer service and technical support? Customer Service: Its good . Technical Support: On a scale of 1-10, I would rate technical support a 6. Which solutions did we use previously? We previously used Data Domain ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/emc-data-domain_vs_hpe-storeonce ). We switched to StoreOnce because of the complexity of the Data Domain system. Data Domain is a great product, but it’s complex to use. How was the initial setup? Initial setup was pretty easy. We did not face any problem. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? For licensing and pricing, I would recommend just pay as you go. It’s pretty easy to scale. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We did not evaluate other options before choosing this product. We only chose this product because we use HP’s Data Protector ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-data-protector ) as a backup application and it has great support. What other advice do I have? Read the support matrix first. It is not supported on lot of the open systems such as OpenVMS or the IBM AS/400 iSeries. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It allows us to centrally control and store all backup data with minimal effort and administration, although performance during restores needs improvement. Valuable Features Federated Catalyst Replication allows us to centrally control and store all backup data with minimal effort and administration, and also removes relying on onsite staff at remote locations to change tapes. Improvements to My Organization Not every office has skilled IT staff, so changing backup tapes was always a challenge. A person was typically “burdened” with the task of changing tapes daily or weekly and would often be neglected for other priorities or be completely forgotten if the staff member was away or on leave. Now, there is no requirement for any staff member at remote sites to be involved in any task related to data backup and recovery. We averaged at least three missed backups a month due to issues with the right backup tapes not being in the drive at the time of a backup. This has been completely eliminated since moving to StoreOnce and using Catalyst Stores and Catalyst Replications since all data moves are automated and bandwidth friendly, so they complete well within our nightly backup windows, and tapes are only used at the Datacentre which is controlled by trained IT professionals. We now have no one to blame but ourselves Room for Improvement * Other products are able to read and write directly to/from StoreOnce Catalyst Stores (Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP, Oracle and soon Veeam Backup & Replication). However, they cannot integrate with StoreOnce Catalyst Replication. The replication must be triggered by software such as HP Data Protector, which must first know about the data that exists on the Catalyst Store. Unfortunately, data written to a Catalyst Store by one of the other products is not visible to Data Protector, so automating actions to occur based on new data being written to a Catalyst Store is not available. This really limits the ability to integrate all backups in to the Catalyst Store using their own native tools (MSSQL Maintenance Plans for example) and leverage the Federated Catalyst Replication capabilities. All backups must be written by Data Protector use Federated Catalyst. * The performance of NAS/CIFS Shares on a StoreOnce is acceptable for a standard write operation, but performance during restores (such as Virtual Machine Restores from Veeam Backup and Replication) is unacceptable. This is being improved as more products natively support StoreOnce Catalyst but is not widely adopted as yet. Use of Solution We have been using StoreOnce for approximately two years, and couldn't be happier. It's used across two main datacentres and over 15 remote sites that use a combination of the 4430, 4220, and 2620 systems. All StoreOnce systems run the same OS Version, currently 3.12.1. We do not use the VSA, as we strive to maintain physical hardware separation between our production data and disk backups. We backup data at all remote sites to a local StoreOnce device, then replicate it to Datacentre A, then again to Datacentre B, and then finally copy to tape for secure storage. Also in-use, is HP Data Protector 9.03 which controls backup of data into StoreOnce Catalyst Stores and automated object copy operations which utilise the HP StoreOnce Federated Catalyst to replicate backed up objects between StoreOnce Backup Systems. All data backups at remote sites follows the same routine: * Single Data Protector Backup Specification for all clients in the site. * Data Protector Disk Agents back up data to a single HP StoreOnce Gateway (we use one of the same disk agents being backed up to also serve as the gateway). * Data is written to a StoreOnce Catalyst Store at the local site. * Data Protector Post-Backup Object Copy Job with the “Use Replication” checkbox enabled is triggered automatically upon completion of the backup to replicate data to Datacentre A. * The StoreOnce Gateways at both sites trigger a Catalyst Replication where the StoreOnce's replicate the Data Protector Backup Objects from one StoreOnce to the other utilising source-side deduplication has dramatically reduce WAN usage (only blocks that do not exist are transferred). * Once completed, another Post-Backup Object Copy Job copies the data from the StoreOnce at Datacentre A to a similar StoreOnce at Datacentre B. * A final Post-Backup Object Copy Job then copies the data from Datacentre B on to LTO6 Tape. Using this process results in many restore options, and the entire process is automated. We can restore from: * StoreOnce at the remote site * StoreOnce at Datacentre A * StoreOnce at Datacentre B * LTO6 Tape at Datacentre B Deployment Issues No real issues other than the change in mindset for our backup administrators and the increase in the number of jobs that are now configured. For a typical remote site the following seven jobs exist: * Daily Differential Backup (Monday to Thursday) to local StoreOnce * Daily Post-Backup Object Copy to Datacentre A * Daily Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre A to Datacentre B * Weekly Full Backup (Friday) to local StoreOnce * Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy to Datacentre A * Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre A to Datacentre B * Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre B to LTO Tape There is also now the requirement to upgrade HP Data Protector to provide certified support for newer StoreOnce OS releases. HP Data Protector upgrades typically bring with them enough problems on their own. Stability Issues We did experience an issue for many months where Post-Backup Object Copy jobs would remain stuck “In Progress” and never report any data movements even though the two StoreOnce devices successfully replicated data. The jobs had to be aborted and manually re-run. We experienced approximately five of these a week out of over 200 jobs that would run. This was eventually fixed in Data Protector 9.03, and a post-hotfix. Customer Service and Technical Support The HP StoreOnce support team are very responsive and quick to react to problems and offer ongoing support and guidance. However, StoreOnce really shines when integrated with a backup product that utilises the StoreOnce capabilities to better protect your data. This is where the HP Technical Support breaks down. It is often difficult to have a team take ownership of a problem or admit there is a fault, the blame is often directed to someone else. Typically, we have found this to be more of an issue with the Data Protector Support than with StoreOnce, but being the same company it is quite jarring at times how little cross-communication and teamwork there is despite Data Protector and StoreOnce being so heavily dependent on each other. Previous Solutions We previously used Symantec Backup Exec at remote sites to back up data locally to tape, and HP Data Protector at the Datacentres. Managing two separate products was difficult, particularly with staff trying to remain current on both products that have very different lifecycles. Since we already used Data Protector at the datacentres and HP StoreOnce is the most tightly integrated with Data Protector the choice to use StoreOnce was very easy. We did not evaluate any other disk backup products. Initial Setup The initial setup was complex, at least compared our previous backup solution of each site being their own installation of Symantec Backup Exec, and only a couple of small jobs to maintain. We have a much larger number of backup jobs to maintain now, and must be very careful when running jobs during business hours as most jobs now have other jobs that chain off them, so you run one job and it could trigger many others. However, all configuration is done from a central location, all replications are triggered automatically, and we have full tracking of where every piece of backed up data is and where all of its copies also reside. A sore head upfront to have automated backups of every location and centrally replicated and multiple restore locations is well worth it. Implementation Team We leverage the HP Level Two StoreOnce Startup Service which gave us access to the HP StoreOnce engineers for a few days. We were able to workshop our requirements and vision and come up with a solution that would technically achieve what we wanted. Unfortunately, HP Federated Catalyst depends heavily on HP Data Protector and there doesn’t seem to be much cross-skill of engineers between Data Protector and StoreOnce. Thankfully we have over eight years of in-house technical experience with Data Protector so we were able to leverage what we learnt during the StoreOnce Startup Service to expand upon the solution and deliver above and beyond what we thought was possible. To make use of Federated Catalyst I strongly recommend a deep understanding of HP Data Protector (it’s not as scary as it first appears to be). Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing It is not abundantly clear, but the HP Catalyst License also includes the Catalyst Replication capability, so no other license is required if Catalyst Stores are the only backup target being used. StoreOnce devices cannot replicate Catalyst Stores automatically for you, the replication must be triggered by other software such as HP Data Protector. Depending on the backup product being used with HP StoreOnce, there may be disk backup capacity licenses also required. HP Data Protector requires Advanced Disk Backup Licenses for the usable capacity of the StoreOnce Systems (this is the native usable capacity, regardless of how much data you can actually store thanks to deduplication benefits). You can use a StoreOnce as a NAS/CIFS Target and also as a Virtual Tape Library. These backup targets can be replicated to other StoreOnce Backup Systems, however these require additional licenses. Other Advice ... Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-10-18T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from For performance, it is better than VTL or NAS configs, and it provides total integration with HPE storage and backup solutions. Valuable Features Catalyst functionality: for performance, it is better than VTL or NAS configs, and it provides total integration with HPE storage and backup solutions (3PAR ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-3par-flash-storage ), Data Protector ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-data-protector ), VM Explorer, and so on), and also integration with NetApp, Symantec (NBU/BE), and Veeam with the Catalyst plugin. The special plugins developed with Oracle RMAN, MS-SQL for direct backup from these application systems to StoreOnce ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ). Improvements to My Organization It reduces backup time and reduces storage space requirements, compared to non-deduplicated systems. It reduces the amount of time it takes to recover data from storage compared to tapes. It is easy to deploy and configure. Use of Solution Deployment / config / install experience: 3 years. Deployment Issues Not especially. Customer Service and Technical Support Good. Initial Setup Initial setup is simpler because all of the tasks can be done from GUI whereas before it was from the CLI. Other Advice HPE backup systems are very good products. Easy to manage, very good performance, with a lot of ongoing new development. Good integration with many backup or storage products. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Saves me time because we can virtualize the tape drives What is most valuable? It's easy to backup data, manage. Also I did a lot of firmware upgrades that went fine. And it's a product that's been running now for nearly three years without any issues. So that's all very good. How has it helped my organization? I do not spend as much time on it because we can virtualize the tape drives and use Catalyst functions. Not nearly as many tapes or anything like that. Easily, man-hours have been cut down. What needs improvement? We have a contract for the next release. We haven't received that product yet. I expect the same thing from it. Not anything new, just a bigger solution when we try it. I don't see any new features that we could want or anything that could be done along those lines. Just that we need a bigger machine, so more speed. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability is within our expectations. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We did some calculations on, when it says in the sales sheet that we got this number of terabytes, but the system itself uses some terabytes. So what we ended up with was having 10 or 11 terabytes less than HP actually said that it would contain. We had a lot of discussion about that with our distributors and sales persons. That's just how it is. How is customer service and technical support? It's been good. We had run full, "full-cup" time, and I called HPE support and I believe in two or three hours we had the problem solved. Sometimes we have to talk to level-2, but that goes okay. Which solutions did we use previously? The solution was that we could use Catalyst software, which would say that we don't need this many virtual tape drives. We could just clamp it down to one file drive or share and put everything in there. What we were looking for was something that would work together with HPE Data Protector, the software. Actually, the problem was that we couldn't find any competitors for this because HPE data only supports this. So we actually ended up having to buy it if we wanted the feature. How was the initial setup? It was nice. Straightforward. No issues. Which other solutions did I evaluate? EMC, I can't remember what it's called, but they have a booster technology software also. We chose HPE because we had Data Protector. So we needed that to integrate into the StoreOnce. What other advice do I have? Think about how much you need to backup compared to how much storage you need when you size. The sizing is critical because you end up using more than you think. The product itself, nice features, it works, and it's been running stable. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-11-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Multiple data types can be isolated and segregated to provide multi-tenancy. Valuable Features The product was easy for me in terms of architecture, deployment and support. In comparison to other products I have worked with, these areas for HP have high scores. Improvements to My Organization It has provided flexible options accommodating a broad range of uses. For example, multiple data types can be isolated and segregated to provide multi-tenancy. Room for Improvement Reporting needs to be worked on. Use of Solution I've used it for one year. Deployment Issues No issues encountered. Stability Issues Yes we did, but it was resolved with a software upgrade. Scalability Issues No issues encountered. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: Above average service. Technical Support: Above average with excellent response times. In one case, I needed a hard drive replaced, and the person who took my call was the person who arranged the engineer/part to be replaced. Also, the person was knowledgeable about the product. Previous Solutions No previous solution was being used. Initial Setup It was straightforward. We went from proof of concept to production in days as opposed to weeks. Implementation Team We implemented it in-house. Other Solutions Considered * Quantum * Symantec Other Advice Clearly understand your needs before looking for a solution. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-04-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We can backup our exchange server and files, but its integration could be better to keep up with the competition. Valuable Features It just works – there isn’t anything specific about it. We can backup our exchange server, we can backup our files, and it just works without being overly complex either. Improvements to My Organization I can’t say that it has, they are lagging behind on the features, we went to vSphere 6 and it failed a while ago. The DP9 just came out a few weeks ago to answer that integration issue. Room for Improvement It’s the speed to market with new technology that they are not keeping up with. Also, the integration could be better, the Comvault features are offering more and StoreOnce is lagging. Use of Solution I've used it for 15 years. Deployment Issues Not so much deployment more on the support end of things. Stability Issues It’s stable – it works. Scalability Issues VMware changed something when they went to 6, even Comvault was a week behind, but while Comvault provided a solution, HP just released their updates a week or two ago in the new version – we now have to go to DP9. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: Customer support is fine. Technical Support: Technical support is brutal, my guy never wants to get on the phone with me, and he prepares to be tortured. He knows going in that it’s going to be painful. Other Advice Look elsewhere – you can’t change something once you have it, and it accomplishes what it needs to, but it's not leading edge enough to address the new technologies out there. Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2015-09-22T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from My clients appreciate the deduplication ratios. What is most valuable? The features my clients appreciate more is the deduplication ratios. It's amazing. That technology can put tons of TBs in a fewer space. How has it helped my organization? The benefits are clear. They need to store their backups in a single space with this feature of deduplication, compression. The administration is so easy for them and the integration with their backup application they are using, like Data Protector, are so transparent. What needs improvement? The licence procedures: There is a team for the deployment and there's a team for the licence, but they don't communicate with each other. That's an issue for us. What do I think about the stability of the solution? My customers don't have any issues, important issues, with StoreOnce. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It's not necessary to scale the smaller equipment, and we haven't had to scale the larger equipment as our customers aren't there yet. How is customer service and technical support? HPE have better support - hardware and software - compared to the competition. They appreciate it so much. Their response time is so good. How was the initial setup? Complex for a technician is not an issue because it's very clear. Putting the StoreOnce in production is transparent for a technician who has a sense of knowledge and basically operating systems knowledge too. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We start up the equipment and we need to put the licence number and the serial number of the equipment but I had a problem with that. It is not clear which serial number we need to use. I had a problem with a client who used one serial number but that serial number wasn't the correct one. We needed to open a case for re-licensing the equipment. It takes about two weeks to put in the licence. It's not OK for us, for the client. It's the only issue I have with the StoreOnce. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-05-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We can back up our data directly from stores, so it has reduced our expenses. Valuable Features Deduplication ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/deduplication-software ) and replication are both extremely important for storing huge chunks of data. Secondly, now it has extended support to VMware and MS SQL via EMC. Improvements to My Organization Well, it has improved the organization in the sense we can back up our data into StoreOnce ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/hpe-storeonce ) directly from stores etc., so it's become cheaper for us. Room for Improvement I would like to see it support open stack and also other vendors’ hardware, if possible, via EMC. I have an existing EMC backup solution and HPE StoreOnce solution. Typically this happens in case of M&A between two companies when two different companies use two different storage vendors. Now I want to move my data from EMC to StoreOnce, but I don't have a direct way to move this data. I suggest that if it would offer OpenStack support then we will be able to freely move data across. Use of Solution I have been using it for six months. Deployment Issues I have not really encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues. We haven’t faced any major issues. Customer Service and Technical Support HPE ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/vendors/hewlett-packard-enterprise ) technical support is a bit slower compared to EMC ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/emc-data-domain_vs_hpe-storeonce ), which might have a larger support team that can respond faster. Previous Solutions Its deduplication feature and 3PAR support were the primary reasons we selected it. Initial Setup I didn’t install it, and I was not there while it was getting installed. However, as far as I’ve heard, they didn't face any major issues. ROI Just look into the cost factor if you have some other system already in place. Like, say you already have EMC products, then it's probably better to stick with them. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:My company is an HPE Platinum Partner.
Date published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Entry level model, even more disk space would be valuable. Valuable Features Data deduplication. Improvements to My Organization Backups are much more optimized, and we can take more backups and more often because of data deduplication. Room for Improvement This is an entry level model, even more disk space would be valuable. Use of Solution HP StoreOnce 2620 iSCSI Backup Storage - 1 year Deployment Issues No Stability Issues So far, no. Scalability Issues No. This is an entry level model, and this one cannot be scaled. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: Very good. Technical Support: Very good. Initial Setup Straightforward. Implementation Team In-house. Other Solutions Considered No, this was the first choice, based on internet reviews. Other Advice Highly recommended the product, be sure to use the right backup application (Veeam or similar), so you can get the most out of it. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from We are able to reduce the amount of backup tapes we need. Valuable Features * Faster backup and restore process * Data de-duplication mechanism Improvements to My Organization With D2D2T appliance, and backup jobs reconfiguration we are reducing the backup tapes count. The appliance offers a fast backup and restore process, and a data replication mechanism to a remote site location. This ensure data center backups disaster recovery. Room for Improvement * Data capacity graphical interface Use of Solution I've used it for three years. Deployment Issues No issues during the deployment. Stability Issues No issues encountered. Scalability Issues No issues encountered. Customer Service and Technical Support Customer Service: 10/10. Technical Support: 10/10. Previous Solutions This is the first solution we have implemented. Initial Setup It was straightforward, because we had chosen the right template for our needs and all the connectivity was prepared before the device was on site. Implementation Team It was implemented through the local HP support team. They provided us with excellent support and knowledge of the product technology. Other Advice Always follow the vendors best practice and guidance to avoid any problems. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2015-05-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It is reliable and easy to use. Upgrades are simple. What is most valuable? I would say the reliability, the ease of use, and the simple upgrades are the most valuable features. We did quite a bit of capacity upgrades in the past because it wasn't our primary storage platform for backups in the beginning. So we kind of sized it small, and then we went through several upgrade paths to get to where we are today. And all the upgrades were really simple; no issues. How has it helped my organization? It allowed us to stop using physical tapes, so we saved money on the tape storage. It allows us to have better DR capabilities because everything we back up with StoreOnce, gets replicated up to our DR site. What needs improvement? We had some growing pains, which was due to our internal issues. We were rushed to get it installed, and didn't necessarily do all the proper training on it. Even though we had HPE resources onsite, again we were just trying to get it up and going quickly. I think in the future, if we switch platforms, we would probably address the training better than we did this time. But the product performed well out of the box with very few support calls probably. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability's been great. We haven't had any issues with it. We had a few growing pains in the beginning, but a lot of it was just getting used to the platform. We haven't had any data loss with it. It stayed up. Even through all the upgrades, we haven't had issues. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We started small and it's grown exponentially since then. I'm not sure how much bigger we're going to get, but it is scaled greatly and performance hasn't decreased. How is customer service and technical support? Technical support are knowledgeable. Fortunately, we have a pretty much dedicated support person that we deal with. By HPE giving us just one resource, it's helped us because they are familiar with our environment. They're familiar with our systems. Support's been painless. Which solutions did we use previously? We were running legacy virtual tape libraries through HPE and stuff a ton, and we needed the ability to replace those older systems. The latest and greatest technology at the time was StoreOnce, so we did an evaluation with it, set it up in our lab. Again, it was super easy to use. It did everything as promised. It was sized appropriately for what we needed at the time. And the price was competitive. How was the initial setup? Initial setup was straightforward. I mean we pretty much rolled it into the data center, cabled it up, and we were backing up data the first day with it. What other advice do I have? Nothing's perfect, but the speed we get from the system, the deduplication we get from the system, the replication, it all works as designed. We haven't really had any complaints with the product. Again, nothing's perfect, so we can't give it a perfect rating, but it's very good, and it is way better than what we used before. We don't have to deal with physical tapes anymore. We don't have to deal with all those headaches because they are fragile. And support costs are tremendous for physical tapes when we were storing tens of thousands of them off-site. It let us saves costs on that. We run a pretty thin shop, so our two existing backup people were able to step in and start using the system, no issues. It's just been great so far. I'd say don't be afraid of going tapeless. Have some faith in the HPE sales team when they tell you, because they will come in with deduplication estimates of how much space you'll save with the product. Our experiences was pretty accurate. You may be shocked at how they size the platform, but we didn't have any big issues with that. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-05-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good technical support, and the data storage requirements are impressive What is our primary use case? 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. How has it helped my organization? 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. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? We have been working with HPE StoreOnce for between six and seven years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? 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. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We have just reached capacity and we are now trying to get a new box. How are customer service and technical support? 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. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is pretty straightforward. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The licensing fees are based on how much storage space is required. What other advice do I have? 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. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-07-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Powerful compression and deduplication capabilities, highly scalable, and good technical support What is our primary use case? 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. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? Pricing could be reduced The GUI and its user-friendliness have some room for improvement. What do I think about the stability of the solution? From a technical point of view, it's a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? HPE StoreOnce has the highest scalability in the market. It is very good compared to products such as Dell Data Domain. How are customer service and technical support? I am satisfied with the technical support. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is pretty straightforward. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Price-wise, it comes with a high price tag when compared to other products. What other advice do I have? 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. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2020-07-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from An expensive product that is slow, needs improvement to the interface, should have cloud storage capability, and the support is terrible What is our primary use case? 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. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? We were using HPE StoreOnce for almost three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability is not very good. It is not software-driven, but hardware-driven. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? 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. How are customer service and technical support? The support from HPE is terrible. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Prior to using this product, we were using Microsoft Backup, as it is built into the operating system. What about the implementation team? A reseller was used to assist with the deployment. What was our ROI? 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. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The cost of HPE StoreOnce is very expensive. What other advice do I have? 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. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-07-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from High performance, reliable, and efficient What is our primary use case? HPE StoreOnce is used for archiving data and backup data. How has it helped my organization? By using HPE StoreOnce it can help organizations function. What is most valuable? HPE StoreOnce has high performance. What needs improvement? The user interface of HPE StoreOnce should be more user-friendly. Additionally, the configuration and troubleshooting could be better. For how long have I used the solution? I have used HPE StoreOnce within the past 12 months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? HPE StoreOnce has been stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Some models of HPE StoreOnce are scalable and some are not. What other advice do I have? My advice to others thinking about implementing this solution should look for newer upcoming technologies, such as ones on the cloud. I rate HPE StoreOnce a ten out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to set up with great deduplication and easy expansion capabilities What is our primary use case? We primarily use the solution for a backup. Today, we are using Micro Focus Data Protector, which is a former HPE product, however, we are migrating Convault. What is most valuable? There are a few great features. Obviously, deduplication is a big one. There are the catalyst stores that we are using. It's a feature that does what we need it to do. We've been using the 5100 for quite some time with a lot of success and no issues. However, we were looking, at first, at expanding, however, we couldn't expand them anymore as they were at end of life. Now we are looking at the new generation, the latest, 5260. It is easy to set up the product. The solution is stable. You can easily scale the solution. What needs improvement? I haven't come across any missing features. One item I wanted to see is SSD drives as a cache. Data is taken in by the subsystem on SSD drives and as later on offloaded to spinning media. That was a feature that you could already see in primary storage, and that was, for a time, still lacking in StoreOnce, however, they have done it now. It's not available yet, however, it will be shortly. For how long have I used the solution? I, myself, worked for HPE for 34 years. Now, I'm working as an independent consultant. I'm working at a pharmaceutical company and they've been using it for four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is an absolutely stable solution. We haven't had any issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. it's reliable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is definitely scalable, to the extent that we need it. For our purposes, it is definitely scalable enough. It's modular enough. You can add, with the 5260, 192 terabytes of raw capacity that you can extend one shelf at a time. How are customer service and support? Technical support is helpful, however, an advantage that I have is that I know the company inside out. I still have contact with my former colleagues there. They do their job. They are helpful and responsive. How was the initial setup? The solution is easy to set up. It's not complex or difficult. I'd rate it nine out of ten in terms of ease of implementation. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I'm not into financials. I'm a technical guy. I just help with planning and designing a solution, and then others decide on pricing and configuration. I'm working as an external consultant, therefore, I don't have any decision-making there. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I don't have any practical experience with many other solutions. Coming out of HPE, going to work as an independent consultant in a company that is using a lot of HPE products, I'm obviously quite satisfied that they are using StoreOnce, and they will keep on using it. What other advice do I have? In terms of the version we are using, we have the StoreOnce 5100 and now we're looking at the StoreOnce 5260. I'd recommend the solution to others. It has the features that we require and the features that, are required by a lot of companies that have a lot of data today. It's all about data. Data requirements are booming in the primary storage market and storage subsystems. Obviously, to be protected, you need to back up the data. And there, it does what it needs to do. There are petabytes of user data that you can store on a terabyte type back up to the disk subsystem. That said, if you go to medium-sized companies or small-sized companies, probably there will be cheaper and smaller-scale options. For instance, the StoreOnce that we are using, are long connected, so they are accessed through the network, however, they're also connected through a SUMP, so a storage area network. That is something that you find mostly in the bigger companies that have the financial means to buy these types of subsystems. It would be depending on size and requirements. For bigger organizations, therefore, I would definitely advise they go for this product. I would rate the product nine out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Useful virtual drive, good support, and simple setup What is most valuable? The most valuable feature of HPE StoreOnce is the virtual drive. What needs improvement? HPE StoreOnce could improve the capacity support. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using HPE StoreOnce for approximately five years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? HPE StoreOnce is stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? HPE StoreOnce is scalable in general, but it all depends on your requirement. If this solution was to be used in a large environment with many queries it would have difficulties. How are customer service and support? I have used the support from HPE StoreOnce. I rate the support from HPE StoreOnce a five out of five. How was the initial setup? The initial setup of HPE StoreOnce is simple. What about the implementation team? We did the implementation of HPE StoreOnce in-house. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The licensing schemes could improve in HPE StoreOnce and the price is high. They should reduce the price. What other advice do I have? I rate HPE StoreOnce an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-08-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Configuration has been greatly simplified; deduplication feature is excellent What is our primary use case? 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. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? I'd like to see the cloud integration simplified. It would also be good if they could reduce the cost of the product. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using this solution for the past 10 years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It's a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is scalable. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support of HPE is very, very, very good. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is straightforward. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Everybody would like the cost to be minimized. What other advice do I have? I would highly recommend this product. I rate this solution a nine out of 10. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Very reliable, good deduplication and compression ratio, and supports the HPE Catalyst protocol What is our primary use case? We use it for our virtual workload back up. We are also a service provider, and we provide backup assistance to clients. We use StoreOnce for that backup too. What is most valuable? Deduplication and compression are in a good ratio. It supports the HPE Catalyst protocol, which is much faster than NFS and other protocols. We use CommVault and Veeam, and these two solutions support the Catalyst protocol very well and are integrated at high speed. It is faster than normal access. What needs improvement? When it comes to upgrading, it always goes block-wise. One block is 48 TB raw capacity. It would be good if they can include a smaller capacity for SMB customers. Currently, it is not possible to increase in a smaller capacity. You have to buy the exact same unit. It would be great if they can provide a smaller next block. There are around 20 hard disks, and it would be really helpful if we can add 10 hard disks initially and 10 hard disks later. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for a month. We bought it very recently. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It is a very reliable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? You can't increase the hard disk size. We bought two units. We have one unit connected to another unit. We have got ample capacity so far, and there is no need to increase it. Currently, we have around 15 users. We have bought it for the backup of our customers. When it comes to customers, there are hundreds of customers. How are customer service and technical support? They have been very responsive. How was the initial setup? It was very straightforward. We knew the requirements, so we segmented it as required. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We have got a perpetual license, and we have access to all the features. If you are using cloud banks, you can store the internal data in HPE Cloud if needed. You can offload the data to the HPE Cloud. It is a licensed product. We have got around 10 TB of cloud bank storage with a one-time payment. We specifically took 10 TB for very critical offsite backups. We can also increase it in blocks if needed. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We evaluated EMC Data Domain. We decided to go with StoreOnce because it was more cost-effective and suitable for our budget. Its interface was also easy to use. What other advice do I have? I would recommend this solution. For higher data capacity, we can have around 90 terabytes, and roughly, we can take 75 terabytes of effective capacity. It can do deduplication. As per the papers, it will do 20:1, which may not be realistic, but we have seen 8:1 kind of deduplication. Even if it was 2:1, it will be 140. So, deduplication gives a massive capacity. I would rate HPE StoreOnce a nine out of ten. It has been very good so far. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-04-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Delivers robust, flexible enterprise-wide data protection What is our primary use case? Our client is a government office. They use StoreOnce to store information about the weather as they specialize in meteorology data. Most of our clients are medium-sized enterprises. What is most valuable? I think it's a good solution. The hardware is strong and all the equipment has a good infrastructure. Personally, I think it's the best storage product in HPE for small to medium-sized businesses. What needs improvement? HPE StoreOnce should come with a detailed installation guide. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using HPE StoreOnce for two weeks. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? With StoreOnce, there are many different options for increasing the storage. I believe it's a good solution if a company needs more space for a reasonable price — it's easy to scale this solution. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support is good. I used their technical support for assistance when I was trying to download the console management software — they resolved that problem in an hour or so. How was the initial setup? StoreOnce is very easy to install. No specialized software is required in the installation process. Deployment is also very easy. The initial setup is not complex but it really depends on the type of server. For example, when you use a normal server, it requires a unique process to install the complete solution. With the StoreOnce server, you have to use another method to install the solution because it's very different. This server has its own software pre-installed in the equipment, so it's different than a normal server. Overall, deployment took two days. One day to install the hardware, and another day to deploy the software. Which other solutions did I evaluate? Our client evaluated Dell, Lenovo, and Synology. Synology is a cheaper solution for storing data. However, our client was looking for reliable equipment with full-support — Synology doesn't come with support. With Dell and Lenovo, it was also complicated to obtain support in Ecuador. HPE provides the best support in Ecuador. What other advice do I have? I would absolutely recommend HPE StoreOnce — it's a good product. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give HPE StoreOnce a rating of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-01-27T00:00:00-05:00

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