What is FlexPod?

The FlexPod platform, developed by NetApp and Cisco, is a flexible, converged infrastructure solution that delivers prevalidated storage, networking, and server technologies. It’s designed to increase IT responsiveness to business demands while reducing your overall cost of computing. Think maximum uptime, minimal risk

FlexPod customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

FlexPod Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

(113)

Mike Rife

Network engineer at Capital one

Jul 10 2017

The users don't have problems with latency and there are no problems in the backups.

Valuable Features: The compute team that supports our NetApps does not have to call the network team. This means that everything is running properly and correctly. The users don't have problems with latency and there here are no problems in any of the backups, or in the systems that are tied... more »

SystemSt5522

Sr. Systems Administrator at Cardinal Logistics

Deploying hardware and solutions is easy. We can create capacity and resources on the fly.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are flexibility, high availability, and redundancy. It's the easiest way to deploy hardware. We use it with VMware. It's the easiest way to deploy solutions quickly and scale out. In our environment, we are constantly expanding laterally. It... more »

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NetworkE4c44

IT Manager at a engineering company with 501-1,000 employees

It is non-disruptive. Technical support is proactive and they don't point fingers at each other.

Valuable Features: Flexibility and performance are the most valuable features. We are a financial company. Performance is very important for us, when it comes to processing data on SQL databases. Scalability is another example of us installing a new 8080 and migrating data from 8040 to All... more »

StorageOaa98

Storage Operator at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

Ensures a single upgrade path, although a simpler product with fewer features would help

Valuable Features Honestly, it's making sure that you only have one upgrade path when various patches are released. • Improvements to My Organization There's only one throat to choke when something goes wrong. • Room for Improvement I'm currently drowning in features. So maybe a... more »

Matt Banks

Senior Engineer at Energysolutions

Oct 08 2017

It works reliably and allows me to focus on other things

Valuable Features This sounds dumb, but it just works. I don't want to have to deal with support, and I don't need to because, again, it has just worked. • Improvements to My Organization It allows me to focus on other things. Backing up databases. More efficient. Everybody's short... more »

Derek Van Den Bosch

Admin at Tower International

Oct 08 2017

For anyone who needs the flexibility of moving around profiles from physical device to physical device, it really adds an additional layer of virtualization

Valuable Features The valuable features of the product used to be the memory footprint, but technology has come up. Now it's being able to build the profiles so you can move around your firmware, bios revs, your worldwide name, and your Mac addresses from physical planes. For anyone who needs... more »

SystemsIc84d

Systems Infrastructure at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

Scalable and seamless, and the HA enables us to troubleshoot or replace a part without down-time

Valuable Features I think the most valuable features include it being scalable. We got the product and we have a small environment, but it was able to be scalable to when we started to grow. So I think that was one of the bigger features. Also, that everything is seamless. And what I mean by... more »

SeniorSy4bfc

Senior Systems Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

Easy to use, so we don't spend a whole lot of time learning new products out there

Valuable Features Pretty much a single phone number to call when there is a problem. Ease of use Manageability for the storage system It is valuable, because it is easy. Easy to use, so we don't spend a whole lot of time learning new products out there. That is a major plus. •... more »

Cory Zwick

Server Engineer at Amtrust Financials

Oct 08 2017

One number to call if something goes wrong and no longer wasting time tracking down "gremlins"

Valuable Features There's one number to call if you have a problem, they can get it fixed. Also, it's good to have everything set up the right where you know; all this works together if you do the config right. There's no performance issues. • Improvements to My Organization The... more »

RajSingh

Senior Storage Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

It's less resource-intensive, given that it comes in a package

Valuable Features The ease of deployment: You don't have to worry about dealing with all three components from three different vendors. The support structure: Now when you can open cases, you call either vendor and tell them it's a FlexPod case, they'll hook up with all the rest of the... more »

Brad Mastin

Senior It Analyst at a energy/utilities company

Oct 08 2017

Easy to use and it centralizes everything into our datacenter, helps us manage it

Valuable Features The ease of use. I like that with all the NetApp products, it's very easy to use. I'm on the storage side of it, but we're still working with the servers and we're using the Cis UCS servers. So there are some tweaks that they're still working on on that side of it. But the... more »

Steve Cooksey

Senior Systems Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

Extremely fault tolerant so it's highly available and provides powerful performance

Valuable Features Resiliency Performance Resiliency: It's extremely fault tolerant so it's highly available. If one component fails, it's got a backup that will take over. Performance: FlexPod rocks. It's pretty powerful. And it helps when you have a FlexPod, all the workload's inside.... more »

Martin Hoeg

System Engineer at Jones Walker Llp

Oct 08 2017

It does what it's supposed to do and helps us with up-time, cost, and predictability

Valuable Features That it works. That it does exactly what it says on the tin. That once it's set up, it does exactly what's its supposed to do. There are no "gotchas," there are no "oopsies." Not in this particular use case. There is no hidden BS that has to be satisfied, this, that, or the... more »

CloudEngf0aa

Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 08 2017

Faster provisioning, meeting SLAs, deadlines, we are able to produce more with fewer resources.

Valuable Features I like the management interface in UCS and then UCS Director. I like how I can still automate, the API that you can do with FlexPod - you can work with it through API - which is what we have to have for our environment. We have to produce more with less people. We have to have... more »

Niharika Singh

Storage Admin at Tats Consultancy Services

Oct 08 2017

Provides ease of management, reducing my workload

Valuable Features I'd say the ease of how we can manage it. That is something I personally like. It means I have to do less work. I manage storage, so with the ease with which we can understand, and then share it to the VMware. We create datastores and we share and all that is easy. Not very... more »

TeamLead8692

Team Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Oct 04 2017

Eliminates our having to contact multiple OEMs for any issues that might arise

Valuable Features It's ready to use, just plug and play It's easy to manage Single administration console • Improvements to My Organization One of the benefits of the solution is management. We do not need to contact multiple vendor OEMs for any VMware issues, NetApp issues, or Cisco UCS... more »

SeniorSy9b41

Senior systems manager

Jul 10 2017

We like the validated design. It would be nice to have more of a single pane of glass from a management standpoint.

Valuable Features: We really like the validated design, just being able to reach out to one number and get support from the whole staff. For us, with FlexPod, just the support is really our biggest key. It's just virtualized servers of various sorts: active directory and exchange servers. •... more »

SeniorSye569

Senior systems engineer at Redondo beach

Jul 10 2017

Some of the valuable features are ease of use and ease of adding additional storage.

Valuable Features: Ease of use is a valuable feature. In our case, we had multi-versions of FlexPod. We connected an additional storage app. Connecting to any type of storage would have been pretty challenging with another type of system. However, with this solution, it was fairly easy. The... more »

SeniorNe910e

Senior network administrator

Jul 10 2017

We are running a standard data center with domain controllers.

Valuable Features: I'm on the network side, so I don't have to deal with the NetApp side too much. However, I am on the network side and I really love the fact that I can just swap out blades as fast as I can. We have the M4s in our FlexPod. I personally love it. We are running VMware. We are... more »

Jason Lewin

Infrastructure manager

Jul 10 2017

It is easy to manage and their support is streamlined.

Valuable Features: The way everything works together. It is all built to do what it's supposed to do. The performance we get out of it is incredible. We just went through a refresh of basically a whole new FlexPod. We decided to stay with that just because of how well everything works and how... more »

Enterpri3e9a

Enterprise systems engineer

Jul 10 2017

Provides fast and reliable storage.

Valuable Features: We currently have FlexPods and we are going to buy SolidFire to upgrade the FlexPods that we have. Peer organizations have recently purchased SolidFire and have seen a tremendous increase in their performance, not only just with speed, but with reliability. We don't have a... more »

Thomas Armentani

Network operations at Marine forces

Jul 10 2017

This solution enables us employ VDI.

Valuable Features: Valuable features include the ease of use. The training was pretty good for our junior Marines. The implementation was relatively easy and the OS supports resiliency. Right now, we have our Enterprise Services on it, Sharepoint, our print server, and our VDI construct. ... more »

Trevor Choo

Network Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 10 2017

We appreciate the inter-operability of the setup with Cisco.

Valuable Features: Our solution is an All Flash FlexPod, in conjunction with Cisco UCS. We appreciate the inter-operability and the ease of use of that setup. Basically it was just a Cisco design so we had high value in that. We are currently running a few SQL servers, mostly active directory... more »

Joseph Wherritt

Network infrastructure manager at Iberia bank

Jul 10 2017

It is an integrated system with a single address for support.

Valuable Features: It's an integrated system with a single throat to choke for support. It's one phone call and if we believe it to be a Cisco problem, we call Cisco tech. If it turns out that it becomes a NetApp problem, then Cisco tech will engage the NetApp folks for support. It's a single... more »

Armond Stansel

Director of IT at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 10 2017

The valuable features are expanding the hardware and containerizing elements into a single platform.

Valuable Features: The valuable features are just the simplicity of expanding the hardware when you need to and containerizing everything into a single platform. On FlexPod, we are using Cisco collaboration. Not just Cisco, but other collaborator tools as well. Collaboration is our focus,... more »

Tony-Coppin

Solutions Arcitect

Jul 10 2017

A converged platform with a good support model.

Valuable Features: It is a converged platform. It is a support model. I can call directly into NetApp and our customers can call directly into NetApp. And when they're troubleshooting an issue, whether it's on virtualization, their compute, the storage side, they have that one level of... more »

PaulHolt

Exec director of enterprise it services

Jul 10 2017

The main features are ease of deployment and reliability.

Valuable Features: Number one is the ease of deployment and number two is reliability of the solution. We are running electronic medical records applications and also document scanning, in addition to standard infrastructure type servers. We are using Epic, OnBase, 3M, Nuance Transcription,... more »

Phillip Hice

Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 10 2017

Enables us to leverage block or file capabilities of the storage.

Valuable Features: From the integration standpoint, it is a lot easier to integrate than a lot of people initially felt. Being able to leverage either block or file capabilities of the storage is something that has been beneficial. Most customers had to look at doing that in a couple... more »

Chris Newman

It architect at Broncos football club

Jul 10 2017

We run much of our infrastructure within this environment.

Valuable Features: One of the valuable features is that there is generally one throat to choke, if you will. If you have any problems you can talk to anybody and they'll understand the technical environment you are in, so it makes it easy to troubleshoot. Whether it's an implementation or... more »

Craig Belics

Senior product manager at Century Link

Jul 17 2017

The most valuable features are the ACI integration and the Application-Centric Infrastructure.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are the ACI integration with overall FlexPod and the Application-Centric Infrastructure. This is especially the case with Vnomic automation software for SAP specific workloads. Those elements are great for us as a service provider. We love the... more »

Chris Noel

Network manager

Jul 10 2017

We use it to run our core web servers and our data warehouse

Valuable Features We redid our data center, which involved taking out the 6509 and some other things. We bought the complete solution and it went in relatively easy. We were up and running very quickly. We've had it for about six years now and had very little problems with it. We've just been... more »

Mohammad Farhad Hussain

Consultant

Jul 10 2017

The main benefits are scalability, modularity, and fast data transfer.

Valuable Features: The valuable features are scalability and all-flash. We are using it with Cisco UCS Blade Servers, so the Cisco switches work very well as a unit. It provides us with the performance we need for our customers to get data on time. Our top customers are very happy with this... more »

ClydeGamboa

Director of technology with 10,001+ employees

Jul 10 2017

The most valuable feature is the converge nature of having compute storage on the network in one rack.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the converge nature of having compute storage on the network in one rack. We are able to use the virtual switching to add multiple networks, DMZs and sub-nets to be able to use the resource of the FlexPod itself. We are running the full gamut for... more »

ITManage4154

IT Manager at a pharma/biotech company with 201-500 employees

Jun 28 2017

Integrates well with Cisco and NetApp.

Valuable Features: The FlexPod technology is really reliable for us. We have no complaints about the reliability and the stability of the product. • Improvements to My Organization: We had an older SAN that needed to be improved and the FlexPod technology was chosen for the integration... more »

John Nevis

Scada supervisor at Brook fields renewable power

Jun 28 2017

It simplified our server farm.

Valuable Features: It simplified our server farm. We were able to consolidate down to one rack from the three or four server racks we had before. We were running a lot of servers, which are supervisory control and data acquisition systems for power systems. We also run a lot with OSIsoft's PI... more »

Principa76ba

Principal engineer at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 28 2017

One rack solution that is easy to implement and integrate to the existing network. The licensing fees are exorbitant.

Valuable Features: A valuable feature is being a one-rack solution. It was easy to implement and integrate to the existing network. The complexity of how things connect was taken out of it. We use it for mostly for cloud television, CloudTV platforms, and storage of VMware images. •... more »

SystemsE14a1

Systems engineer lead at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 28 2017

Provides less overhead and simplifies administration.

Valuable Features: Valuable features include scalability, flexibility, speed, and security. • Improvements to My Organization: It has helped us in terms of less overhead and less downtime. It simplifies the administration. • Room for Improvement: Perhaps a unified management for all... more »

SeniorSy566a

Senior systems admin

Jun 28 2017

Offers integration with several products. Its architecture has been proven.

Valuable Features: I think the valuable features of FlexPod are the integration with several products, especially when it comes to the support model. If I have any issues, whether it is with be VMware, NetApp, or Cisco, I can call one place and I can get support. It doesn't matter which one... more »

BryantDawson

Datacenter manager at Defenders

Jun 28 2017

It integrates well with Cisco, NetApp, and VMware.

Valuable Features: I would say the ease of management and ease of support. Growth-wise, you can expand east, west, north, and south. It integrates well with Cisco, NetApp, and VMware. They aren't pointing fingers. They just want to drive to a solution when we have an issue. We have VMware... more »

Parker Harger

Systems Admin with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 27 2017

We use it for VMware, Hyper-V, and XenServer.

Valuable Features: We are running mostly virtualizations. We use it for VMware, Hyper-V, and XenServer. On top of that, we use it for some Microsoft, Linux, Oracle SQL, and web development. • Improvements to My Organization: It's just a nice simple solution. There is a single number to... more »

Calin Chiorean

Senior network arcitect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 27 2017

One of the valuable features is the consolidation in one rack.

Valuable Features: I like the consolidation in one rack. You have everything coming together, you just assemble it, and you're ready to go. You don't have to purchase different pieces of the hardware to have one solution. This is one of the best features. We use it mainly for storage. We are... more »

SeniorSy9c19

Senior Systems engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 27 2017

It has simplified our server farm.

Valuable Features: It has simplified our server farm. We were able to consolidate down to one rack from the three or four server racks we had before. We were running a lot of SCADA servers, which is a supervisory control and data acquisition system for power systems. We also run a lot with... more »

Director2060

Director Of IT Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Temporary profiles are available if you lose one of your servers. You can move the service template from one server to another.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are the service profiles and the temporary profiles that are available if you lose one of your servers. You can move the service template from one server to another. That's an advantage, as you can set it and there's not a lot you have to do. It... more »

Milther Alamilla

Storage Analyst at a leisure / travel company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Setup involved a form we filled out and populating the information.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are reliability and the ability to give our end-users a reliable system with the performance, the IOPS, and the latency that they want. It just solved all our issues. • Improvements to My Organization: We're using all-flash FlexPod, and that's... more »

Deepak Seth

Principal Storage Engineer at Esurance

It is easy to use. If you follow the reference document how to set it up, it provides a stable environment.

Valuable Features: One of the valuable features is ease of use. Getting any environment set up is probably the easiest thing to do. You can set up the entire solution in about a day or so. When we have a requirement for a specific project, we don't need to worry about getting into different... more »

1 comment

SrSysSpecialist534 Greetings from a VBlock owner and also a NetApp shop that had the first of... more »

NavinKumar

Senior Storage Architect at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The integration is pretty valuable. Setup was problematic and stability is a question mark.

Valuable Features: The integration with Cisco is the most valuable feature. • Improvements to My Organization: Because we are a big virtualization shop, this tool has benefited our organization. I don't see the benefit from a management perspective, because we still have to manage each and... more »

Jeff Cantrell

Manager of Systems Engineering at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The two big draws for us are the form factor and the converged infrastructure.

Valuable Features: The two big draws for us are the form factor and the converged infrastructure. We'd been using Dell blade centers and HPE blade centers before that. The density and the full integration between NetApp and the compute side, we really enjoyed. • Improvements to My... more »

Prashanth Nagasubramanya

Global Manager (Storage) Cloud Managed Services at IT Convergence

It reduces the complexity of cabling and helps us create new designs.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is that FlexClone and all the components are integrated into one single rack. The FlexPod in itself helps us in reducing the complexity of cabling and also creating new designs, because they're all validated by Cisco, NetApp and VMware. That's the... more »

Armando Beltran

Manager - Storage and Backups at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The scalability allows us to grow with the infrastructure.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the scalability, how the infrastructure can grow. We can grow easily with the infrastructure. • Improvements to My Organization: We offer cloud services to our customers in Panama. We can grow when our customers ask for more capacity or more... more »

Principaaa2b

Principal Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

It’s a standard; it's a spec. It's the same across all environments.

Valuable Features: It is very powerful. It can support much more than just one FlexPod. One NetApp can support more than just one FlexPod. That's about it. It's powerful. • Improvements to My Organization: It’s a standard; it's a spec; so, it's very easy to assemble and use. It's the same... more »

Lynne Proksch

Network Services System Administrator II at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have two heads in separate data centers approximately one mile apart with dark fiber. There is high availability and high resiliency within our data structure.

Valuable Features: We're using the mirroring capability of the FlexPod. We're having the two heads in separate data centers that are approximately one mile apart with dark fiber. We really like the capability of having that high availability and high resiliency within our data structure, our... more »

SystemsE0028

Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

As a kind of industry standard, it's nice to have a lot of information about it out there.

Valuable Features: It runs extremely well. Once the initial setup’s completed, it's very steady and continues to run great. Having something that is kind of like an industry standard is extremely helpful, because there's a lot of information such as other customers’ reviews and issues that they... more »

Justin Hibbard

Systems Engineer II at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The hardware and software is disjointed, so we can apply service profiles.

Valuable Features: We like that the FlexPod is dense; it offers a lot of power in a small package. Specifically, with the Cisco UCS, we like that the hardware and end software is disjointed, so we can apply service profiles and our VMware environment is a little more dynamic that way. •... more »

Anthony Njoroge

Senior Customer Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

You can scale up or scale out on either compute, storage, networking, or on all of them.

Valuable Features: There are very many features, but from experience, the single point of contact for support has been valuable to our customers. They do not have the headache of seeking support with multiple vendors. The single point of support supports hardware, hypervisor, and guest systems... more »

Director5618

Director, Technology at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Validated design and setup. No configuration questions.

Valuable Features: The single line of support is valuable. It's a validated design, so there's not a lot of questioning to it. Storage and server compute comes in and it's ready to go. When we needed the storage and compute to run our apps, the FlexPod seemed like the right choice because... more »

StorageA4d6b

Storage Administrator at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Easy to set up and administer.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature are probably the inter-app ability that it offers; knowing that everything is compatible; and the validated designs that we get with that. • Improvements to My Organization: Ease of set up and administration; knowing everything that we have is... more »

Mike Lawler

Systems Administrator, I at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I can migrate my profiles if I have a problem with one. I have firmware upgrade issues.

Valuable Features: I love the ability to migrate my profiles if I have a problem with one. It's worked out great for us: system dies, have it back up on 20 minutes, no problem. Unfortunately, that has happened once. • Improvements to My Organization: It just gave us everything in one box.... more »

John Szakacs

Sr Staff Storage Admin at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The defined architecture means you know you're going to be using best practices.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the defined architecture, so you know you're going to be using best practices. That's key and important to us. We use the segmented layer 2 architecture that we got from a design on FlexPod, and that's helped a lot. • Improvements to My... more »

Infrastr6481

Infrastructure Eng at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

When you are doing a rip-and-replace of your storage, you can bring UCS and NetApp in at the same time.

Valuable Features: I like the fact that it is all integrated. That is the biggest thing. You get everything, all in one shot. A good example of that is when you are doing a rip-and-replace of your storage. It allows you to bring UCS and NetApp in at the same time, at the five- or six-year mark,... more »

SystemTe24ef

System Team Lead & IT Architect at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

I have one vendor to contact. We don't have to test it right off the bat.

Valuable Features: One of the most valuable features is that I have one vendor that I have to contact to go to all my vendors. I don’t have to call Cisco, NetApp, VMware. I just make one call to one of them, they bridge all of that for me; that's nice. Also, with the documented... more »

Ray Ciscon

Senior Systems Engineer at McLean-Fogg

It leveraged existing technologies we had with new blade server technology and NetApp's expandable storage.

Valuable Features: For our company, the FlexPod solution really hit a sweet spot because it leveraged existing technologies we had with new blade server technology and NetApp's scalable, expandable storage. • Improvements to My Organization: We were due for a server hardware refresh, and... more »

Director68c0

Director of IT Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

It’s all treated as one piece with regard to support.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is that it’s all treated as one piece with regard to support. If you have any problem with it and you need to get through to either the Cisco team, or even some of the partners such as VMware and so on, it's one support case, so my team isn't hunting... more »

Steven Brown

IT Systems Engineer, III at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's a one-stop shop. For any issue we have, we make one call, they all pull together and they fix it.

Valuable Features: Obviously, the most valuable feature is the fact that it's one SKU. Basically, if we have an issue with any one of our features – whether it's VMware, Cisco or the NetApp – they pull everybody together and they work together to solve the issue. It's a one-stop shop. Any issue... more »

SystemsE3014

System Engineer II at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is preconfigured and validated by NetApp and Cisco.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are the validation by NetApp and Cisco, that it is preconfigured and preconfirmed, the flexibility and the ease of deployment. • Improvements to My Organization: It can spin up sites quicker and faster and in production, so it cuts the lead... more »

SeniorSa696e

Senior Sys Admin at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Ease of data management and data portability are valuable.

Valuable Features: A couple of the valuable features are the ease of data management and data portability. That would probably be the crux of it. That came into effect with migration from or upgrading an existing cluster to another cluster; it is quite easy to port across using similar... more »

SeniorSy00c7

Senior Sys Admin at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

It allows for cross-training. One person can use the device without much training.

Valuable Features: The usability and the functionality of the solution as it integrates with the UCS system and Cisco devices makes it absolutely great for our environment. Our only difficulties ever using the system is that we are a closed environment, meaning we have no outside internet... more »

Mike Hout

Systems Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's an end-to-end solution for which we have a single support structure.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is that it's an end-to-end solution for which we have a single support structure. We can tag it in the event we have something that crosses between silos. We like that we've got the validated design that we can use quickly to start it. We have... more »

StorageA9d60

Sr. SaaS Operation Engineer at a software R&D company with 501-1,000 employees

It integrates with WFA and Cisco UCSD.

Valuable Features: It's easily integrated. We have WFA and Cisco UCSD; that integration works quite seamlessly. So far, for self-provisioning and for our internal cloud, for the private cloud, that integration works nicely. That's a cool thing. • Room for Improvement: The integration and... more »

LeadSays773d

Lead Sys Admin at a logistics company with 501-1,000 employees

The simplicity of how all the different technologies join together is valuable.

Valuable Features: One of the valuable features is the simplicity of how all the different technologies actually join together. The perk for us was very straightforward. We came in and said, "This is where we're at, this is where we want to go to." Working with our vendors in Australia –... more »

Joel Sprague

Principal Architect at JWS Consult

We don't have to add new ports every time we add a new server. Everything's already connected.

Valuable Features: We really like the flexibility. I love that – it doesn't happen a whole lot, but – anytime we have a blade die or even just bad RAM, I grab that service profile, throw it on another blade, and we're up and running without any issues. We're also a pretty siloed... more »

Jeremy Burkart

Infrastructure Administrator at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Simplifies the stack - we got it because it's a one-stop shop for compute, and the networking aspect of it.

Valuable Features: The initial reason why we got it is because it's a one-stop shop for your compute, and the networking aspect of it. We wanted a sort of one-throat-to-choke approach; if we ever had any problems, we would get the teams onboard instead of finger-pointing back and forth. That's... more »

ITmanager31

IT Infrastructure Manager at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

It doesn't require a lot of administration.

Improvements to My Organization: It allows us to run a very lean infrastructure department. It doesn't require a whole lot of administration, so I'm able to have two sys admins for our entire organization. • Room for Improvement: The user interface could be a little bit more intuitive but... more »

Wayne Rollins

Network Engineer at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees

The UCS chassis and storage system intermingle and work together.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are its modularity, scalability, and the ability to scale down the infrastructure and remove some of the physical hardware that was required previously. It gives us the flexibility to build upon it, whether we do one new service or we do the blade... more »

JonathanBrown

Server Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's easy to implement. When I'm having an issue, I only need to make one call to tech support.

Valuable Features: The valuable features are the ease of use and being able to make one call to tech support when I'm having an issue; I can call Cisco. As they're drilling down, if they see it's a NetApp issue, then they reach out to NetApp. I don't have to make that call. The simplicity... more »

Ray Ciscon

Senior Systems Engineer at McLean-Fogg

It allows us to receive support, planning and installation services from a single provider.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features are the integration and the ability to have support, planning and installation from a single service provider. Integration between the UCS blade side and the NetApp side is excellent. • Improvements to My Organization: The ability to... more »

John Ciechanowski

Storage Engineer at Expedia

You can bring up desktops on Apple, Windows and Linux systems. It allowed us to centralize our file stores and user data.

Valuable Features: We run our VDI system on FlexPod, so I like the fact that it's easy to make changes to it. It was really easy to install, setup and get users involved. The user experience is really cool because you can bring up desktops on Apple, Windows and Linux systems. It really solved a... more »

Oliver Vasquez

Network Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It has provided our client the ability to easily provision virtual machines and storage.

Valuable Features: NetApp’s scalability and high fault tolerance are features that we, in our organization, like about deploying NetApp’s NAS solutions. • Improvements to My Organization: We designed and installed NetApps FAS8040 dual controllers with FAS4246 and FAS2246 Storage Disk to... more »

DirectorITSec936

Director of IT Security at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees

It provides standardization, driving out variation in our system so that we only deal with NetApp and Cisco.

Valuable Features: Standardization, so there's no question about how something is or how something should be set up. Variety is the spice of life, but in what we do, variety kills you. We were an HP shop and we used different SAN vendors, but since going with Flexpod, we only deal with... more »

Shai Perednik

IT Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It provides us with unified support and a reference architecture, although I find it difficult to go through documentation in the service catalogue.

Valuable Features: Certified architecture Unified support • Improvements to My Organization: Unified support Reference architecture • Room for Improvement: The service catalogue and gallery. I find it difficult to go through documentation, and I would like to see user cases... more »

Nabil Kassis

Infrastructure Architect at Echo Entertainment Group

It’s reliable, but has an enterprise cost; however, from an IT perspective it’s worth it.

Valuable Features: It's simple as the software is in the fabric instead of having to install the software Management is easy through the UI You can see all the data Integrated networking • Improvements to My Organization: It’s two vendors who have a good track records, so it’s a... more »

PreSalesTech906

Pre-Sales Technician at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It’s a proven architecture that works with tools for virtualization or private cloud environments, though it could be cheaper in Brazil.

Valuable Features: Management of solution Integration between technologies Single support for all technologies involved • Improvements to My Organization: It's easy to deploy and easy to scale when you need. It’s a proven architecture that works with tools for virtualization or... more »

SrTechArch882

Senior IT Tech-Architect, Storage at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We were thinly staffed, but with it, we can properly staff to be more hands-on with our system.

Valuable Features: Unified management is valuable, and it has a smaller footprint than non-unified solutions. • Improvements to My Organization: Leveraging the expertise of NetApp, and getting a lot of third-party support for it. We’ve been able to transition to a hands-on approach,... more »

TechPlanner876

Technology Planner at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

We can scale each component differently and separately, but configurability for adding components could be easier.

Valuable Features: Reference architecture is very useful so we know how to plug it in We can scale each component differently and separately Each component is best of breed, and better than the competition • Improvements to My Organization: Originally, we already had many... more »

ITDirector870

IT Director at a Consumer Goods with 1,001-5,000 employees

It provides centralized datastores to all locations linked together with a datacenter fabric, but it needs a big block of technology between the reference architecture and the lego-type system.

Valuable Features: Flexibility of the platform. It allows you to grow whenever you want, and to build the data center as you want. It can get associates to change their work because they don’t have to do grunt work as it has automation, network, and datacenter design. The job is done, and you... more »

Anil Kumar Gumadavalli

Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The efficiency in thin provisioning and deduplication has suited many of our applications, although the user base is small and more blogs and discussions are needed.

Valuable Features: It’s basically very scalable and reliable. Also, the total cost of ownership is low. It’s an effective solution for any company, and it fits for our needs. • Improvements to My Organization: It's easy to deploy, and efficient. The efficiency in thin provisioning and... more »

Wesley Harris

IT Systems Administrator at City of Avondale

We're able to call a vendor and they can use back channels and reach out to the other two vendors to get us a solution, but the price could be improved.

Valuable Features: The fact that it’s a validated design, so you are not running into any gotchas. • Improvements to My Organization: By having a FlexPod we're able to call a vendor and they can use back channels and reach out to other two vendors to get us a solution, instead of each... more »

ITManager843

IT Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

The ease of configuration saves us time and we can stand up in remote offices without highly-trained people. However, I think the support has been our pain point.

Valuable Features: The ease of configuration and the reliability are the most valuable features. • Improvements to My Organization: Every deployment we’ve done has been on FlexPod. The ease of configuration saves us a lot of time and we can stand up in remote offices without... more »

Idemus

Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It brings us value because it can be upgraded and utilized for many years, though it could use a unified interface for all three integrated technologies.

Valuable Features: The features that are the most valuable to me are the simplified setup and administration, and the scalability of the system. • Improvements to My Organization: FlexPods are very easy to setup and maintain, and they are scalable. That brings a high level of value to... more »

1 comment

Aamar HussainYou would typically use something like UCS Director to unify the management... more »

SysAdmin357

System Admin II at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's a validated design with a single point of support so that I don't get handed off by tech support. It is, however, a solution with complex initial setup.

Valuable Features: The fact that it’s a validated design, that’s the most valuable feature, plus it has a single point of contact for support. • Improvements to My Organization: It’s the single point of support, so you don’t get handed off. If you have a problem with a piece of it, you... more »

ITMgrStorage354

IT Manager - Storage at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The IMT helps us define versions and components we use in our configurations. However, an upgrade to one vendor component requires upgrading the others.

Valuable Features: I would say that the interoperability matrix tool (IMT) is the most valuable feature as it helps us define versions and components we use in our configurations. • Improvements to My Organization: This allows us to know what versions everything needs to be at, and we... more »

Red Johnston

Senior System Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

There's a cohesive support structure in which NetApp will provide support for a UCS problem.

Valuable Features: I think that the most valuable features are the integration of the components and the support model. • Improvements to My Organization: I think the integrated support where, if I call NetApp support and it’s a problem with UCS, the fact that I have a one-stop shop... more »

Ravi Paladugu

Big data Specialist and Storage Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It's reduced our operational overhead: once you deploy it, everything runs as policy-based. However, there are a lot of challenges in terms of supporting multiple hypervisors.

Valuable Features: Converged Infrastructure and tight integration with Cisco. • Improvements to My Organization: The solution has allowed us to reduce the overall operational overhead – once you deploy the system, you run everything as policy based so everything is very simple. You now... more »

Patrick Ford

Senior Storage Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It gives us the ability to further deploy or to expand it, although in the config advisor tool, it should point out specific issues to fix.

Valuable Features: The most valuable features of the solution are the ease of support and industry leading technology – in storage, servers and networking, as well as virtualization. • Improvements to My Organization: Ease of troubleshooting is good Ease of further deployment or... more »

Mark Latimer

IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

We've been able to scale it easily, having gone through growth cycles, especially with clustered ONTAP.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature of the solution is the pre-design. I don’t have to think – it’s a proven and pre-certified architecture that just works. • Room for Improvement: From my perspective there is not much to improve on and NetApp has gone through great strides to... more »

ITTech303

Virtualization Team Lead at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

It has a pre-validated design, so all the integrations have been done.

Valuable Features: I think that the most valuable feature is the pre-validated design, the reference configuration, as all the integrations have been done, and you don’t need to go through a teething phase. • Improvements to My Organization: I think that the time to deploy is quicker.... more »

ServerOps300

IT - Server Operations at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The cabling feature simplifies my environment and works quickly, and scaling requires only adding a chassis.

Valuable Features: Ease of cabling is the most valuable feature of the solution. Service profiles are also easy to use. • Improvements to My Organization: I would say that the cabling helps me, and it simplifies the environment for me and it is very fast. • Room for Improvement: ... more »

Justin Forrer

Exchange Administrator at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It allows compatibility to the SnapDrive manager, and while we haven't had stability issues yet, we're still early in its usage.

Valuable Features: I would say that it gives us more flexibility than an entire VM or bare metal solution. Its sole purpose where it mixes everything together allows compatibility to the SnapDrive manager. • Room for Improvement: Nothing I have seen can be improved, but I think we're... more »

JoshR147

Sr Sys Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

With our VMs and Hyper-Vs, it allows us to stand up a cluster easier and ensures consistency between clusters. The orchestration and automation, however, could be better.

Valuable Features: I would say the service profiles of UCS for the compute aspect, cluster Data ONTAP, and NDO. • Improvements to My Organization: I would say that we have about 700 VMs and I think 30 HyperV’s, so we can stand up a cluster much easier, and it ensures consistency... more »

SnrSysAdmin144

Sr. Systems Architect at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

It has a validated design and architecture in a stable and scalable solution that expands with just the addition of more clusters.

Valuable Features: I think the validated design and architectures, and being able to call one of the parties for support and they can fix your problem is great. • Improvements to My Organization: We are installing our first NetApp component, and we are doing FlexPod certification as... more »

John Ciechanowski

Storage Engineer at Expedia

The Citrix portion makes your desktop available anywhere on any platform with any OS. However, it has three to four technologies and someone needs to sort out which problem is whose responsibility.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the fact that it’s a complete package, that’s the biggest advantage, and it can be rolled out pretty quickly. The last company I was at, we rolled it out in 90 days, and that was a pretty big environment. • Improvements to My... more »

Jeff Wreyford

Senior IT Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees

The reference architecture helps to standardize our computer stack. I think that a unified dashboard would be beneficial across all three components.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the reference architecture, which helps to standardize our computer stack. • Improvements to My Organization: It has helped us standardize what we get in terms of purchasing hardware, around VMware and Cisco, and the computing system. ... more »

James Tasson

Senior Systems Administrator at Plexus Corp.

We like the streamlined integration for our data centers, although setup misconfigurations can cause outages.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature has been the single stream of support. We no longer have to go between vendors to see where the problem lies, so we avoid finger pointing, etc. Also, we like the streamlined integration for our data centers. As we deploy new sites, or refresh... more »

StorageEng117

Storage Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It has a single-vendor support model in which NetApp and Cisco are support partners so there's no finger-pointing. Reporting, though, could be improved.

Valuable Features: I would say that the most valuable feature is the single-vendor support model. NetApp and Cisco are partnering in the support so you don’t have the finger pointing. Also, the fact that the hardware and software is pre-qualified to work together and supported by each... more »

SnrSolutionsArch111

Sr Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

The fact that everything is certified together means we don’t have to do much, although initial setup seems to be complex because we have UCS in place and are adding a NetApp cluster.

Valuable Features: I think the most valuable features are the architecture and the support from Cisco and NetApp. The fact that everything is certified together means we don’t have to do much. • Room for Improvement: At this point, it's doing everything we’ve asked. • Use of... more »

Ethan Compogno

System Engineer at Thin Technologies

The nexus code has been solid, but the licensing for fabric interconnects could be better.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the flexibility because it scales to meet your needs. You don’t have to buy, like with other converged solutions where you have to buy hardware and storage at the same time, here you buy what you need. • Stability Issues: It’s very... more »

Eric Compogno

System Engineer at Thin Technologies

It's scalable out or up: if we need hardware or more storage, we just buy them separately. However, the UCS firmware code upgrade can totally stall and become a brick.

Valuable Features: Scalability is, to me, the most valuable feature, as it's easily scalable out or up. If we need hardware we buy it, and if we need more storage we can buy that separately. The profile/policy-driven profiles and initial config can take a while, but once it's done deploying, a... more »

SnrSystemSpec093

Senior Systems Specialist - Lead Enterprise Storage Administrator at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It creates a new database and copies the original, but doesn’t need to disturb the original if you don’t want it to. However, monitoring and reporting features are a little behind the older versions.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the mirroring and FlexClone capabilities on the storage side and with the Oracle database. It quickly creates a new database and copies the original, but it doesn’t need to disturb the original if you don’t want it to. • Improvements to My... more »

David Nicholson

Senior Storage Architect at Photobucket

We have a 30-petabyte environment, and we're looking to FlexPod for our database infrastructure. However, more training should be made available.

Valuable Features: Ease of deployment is the most valuable feature. • Improvements to My Organization: I think that there are lots of benefits to using FlexPod. It goes back to the ease of deployment, especially with the projects I’ve been involved in. If you need a refresh on the... more »

David Blythe

Senior Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It’s a seamless integration of three different products: servers, storage and switches, although allowing faster certification times on newer codes on both Cisco and NetApp sides could be good.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature of the solution is that it combines storage and server – very streamlined, very flexible, and built upon reliability. • Improvements to My Organization: It reduces the operational costs with just one platform to manage. It’s a seamless... more »

Dan Reid

Network Services Manager at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees

We have faster backup times, can failover better, and have bigger clusters.

Valuable Features: The guaranteed compatibility is our most valuable feature. • Improvements to My Organization: I would say we’ve seen a speed increase – faster backup times as a result of using the Cisco UCS. We can now do HP failover better, and we can also have bigger clusters. ... more »

Bob Gray

IT Manager at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's stable and we haven't had any outages. However, there's no single FlexPod support and we have to initiate calls with each vendor first.

Valuable Features: Having VMware, Cisco and NetApp on the call when there is an issue is very valuable to us. • Improvements to My Organization: When we had a VMware issue that NetApp was saying was a VMware issue and vice versa – getting them all on the conference call at the same time... more »

1 comment

Jason PoortIf you call NetApp or Cisco or VMware and tell them you have a FlexPod, they... more »

Andrew Bradley

CIP System Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's a flexible, stable solution that allows us to use the various component together with few outages.

Valuable Features: The most valuable feature is the flexibility and the ability to use the various components nicely together. • Stability Issues: It's very good as we've had very few outages. • Scalability Issues: I think its pretty good. We have been able to grow our... more »

Adam Barto

Storage Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We can roll it out by simply ordering another pod and having CDW and engineers install it.

Valuable Features: We can already see that the most valuable features is that everything is tested and certified to work together. The package price is also something we like about it. • Room for Improvement: I don’t think we have enough experience at this point to see the weak... more »

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Articles

Orlee Gillis

Content and Community Manager

IT Central Station

May 17 2017

Top 5 Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Q1 2017

IT Central Station’s crowdsourced user review platform helps technology decision makers around the world to better connect with peers and other independent experts who provide advice without vendor bias.Our users have ranked their solutions according to their valuable features, and have also... more »

1 comment

Alfredo PerezIm no agree than FlexPod is the second Hyper-Converged of course much less ... more »

User Assessments By Topic About FlexPod

Valuable Features

The compute team that supports our NetApps does not have to call the network team. This means that everything is running properly and correctly. The users don't have problems with latency and there here are no problems in any of the backups, or in the systems that are tied into the NetApps. That tells me that it is a well-built and well-designed system. If it stays up and running and the network team doesn't get involved, then I will give it the highest rating.

112 opinions »

Improvements to My Organization

Just the ability to have diversity in the backups, and that it follows our financial regulations in having multiple layers of backup. That app is a helpful tool for all of this.

101 opinions »

Room for Improvement

I guess in time, you could probably use larger processors, and reduce the footprint of the system and increase throughput on it, so we can have higher-end models. I believe we do have the highest-end models. I know we have Enterprise. I think it actually has Enterprise written on the stamp itself. We have a lot of them, which means that they can probably compete with better processors.

109 opinions »

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

Beat them up on pricing, because they’re not cheap.

12 opinions »

Scalability Issues

It appears to scale well. We have racks and racks of them and there are no problems. We keep building and adding as needed.

100 opinions »

Technical Support

I have not used technical support and that's an excellent thing.

104 opinions »

Previous Solutions

When choosing a solution, stability is absolutely what I am looking for. It has to stay running. The software is fine. It's the hardware that we want to make sure runs, runs, and runs.

58 opinions »

ROI

It's provided a good return on investment. It's allowed us to do more with the few people that we actually have.

4 opinions »

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FlexPod Consultants

Request a call with one of our top consultants and experts in FlexPod. (Add me to this list.)

Points

Ravi Paladugu

Big data Specialist and Storage Consultant

Specialties: • Design and Deploy private cloud using open stack and achieving the clients need by customized scripting using python • Consultant for multiple environments to deploy Hadoop and for AWS clouds implementations. • Excellent understanding on hardware and software specification and... more>>

Reviewed FlexPod: It's reduced our operational overhead: once you...

Points

Mohammad Farhad Hussain

Consultant

Reviewed FlexPod: The main benefits are scalability, modularity, and...