IBM System Storage DS8900F vs. NetApp ONTAP Data Management Software

It's a qualified 10. If it's a mainframe environment I wouldn't think twice. An open systems environment I would ask many questions to make sure that it's not going to be a bad decision. The open systems environments would need to have requirements to drive the DS8000. It would work for any environment in the interop matrix, but I'd just want to make sure that it's the right fit.

Incentivized

NetApp ONTAP Data Management is a must platform to most businesses around the globe since the tool generates various capabilities for the user to easily and very securely manage all the project data through the cloud services using the platform capabilities. The data analytics are generated in real-time and easy visualization of different data which the tool helps the user import across other platforms.

Incentivized

• Allows us to use GDPS for our disaster recovery solution. This is a strength because it enables us to meet our DR requirements.
• Allows us to have encryption of our data at rest. This is a strength because it enables us to meet our security requirements.
• Allows us to have a stable and reliable disk storage. This is a strength because it enables us to meet our data availability requirements.

Incentivized

• Offsite replication is seamless.
• Snapshots are easy to implement.
• System Manager is easy to learn and manage the entire system.
• System Manager is feature rich.

Incentivized

• I have seen the GUI say that the storage facility is inaccessible, even when getting a clean health check from IBM. Typically rebooting the HMC fixes this.
• When decommissioning a box, you cannot delete arrays until ranks are done formatting. This adds a lot of time to the decomm process
• IO ports do not have a topology by default

Incentivized

• Not necessarily a dislike of OnCommand per se but I do dislike that you have to still use different flavors of this tool to get a holistic view of every aspect of your NetApp - System Manager, Performance Manager, Unified Manager etc
• The initial process to connect to a filer probably could do with a little more friendly documentation as the format for filer name (or IP) and whether and SNMP string is required etc is not clear.
• The ability for more complete search capability within the logs (so therefore not having to extract them to work with them) would be an advantage for the timely resolution of faults.

Incentivized

Functionality is very impressive, practical, and useful. GUI could use several improvements.

Incentivized

Support is great. Our account managers and system engineers regularly contact us and check in on us. Provide free training on various topics. Our team is readily available to answer any questions. Support tickets are generated automatically if anything goes wrong such as a disk going bad and a new one is sent out immediately. Very happy with support.

Incentivized

Other vendors lack many of the mainframe functions provided by DS8k. SInce IBM is the most prominent maninframe vendor support is unmatched.

Incentivized

I have not been able to use similar platform though in service delivery and functionality capacity this is the most effective tool in our company. The entire organization data and workloads are always under secure environment when managed by this great platform. It has enabled us to meet our objectives and speed up operations across in all departments. Data in both cloud and on premise is automatically connected to provide multiple services and bring efficiency.

Incentivized

• The DS8000 helps my customers meet their overall business objectives by providing a bulletproof platform for the most critical enterprise environments

Incentivized

• It has saved a lot of resources contributing to positive returns on investments
• Our data is always secure under this platform

Incentivized