Our company has on-site personnel, including engineers, and then support from professional third-party service involving three engineers.

I would recommend HPE ConvergedSystem to other users.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Do your evaluation. Don't fall for the marketing hype. Identify the requirements that your business is really looking for rather than relying solely on the statements from the product providers.  

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

My advice for new users is to highlight the reliability of HPE ConvergedSystem. Once set up and configured accurately, it offers stability and security. Emphasize the importance of a thorough setup for a trouble-free experience. Understand the system's features and assure them that, once correctly configured, you can relax and confidently manage your workloads. Overall, I would rate the solution as a nine out of ten.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

I rate HPE ConvergedSystem an eight out of ten. 

I would like to rate the product a nine out of ten. HPE ConvergedSystem is very much on top of the game. We need to update the solution whenever there is a new firmware update. We require two people to handle the product's maintenance. The solution is flexible and easily manageable. 

Most of our landscape is HPE products at the moment. We also have an EMC Backup Appliance in our environment. Currently, we have HPE Blade in our environment. We are thinking of changing all of these products. At the end of this year, we'll probably target HPE Synergy Systems hardware in our environment. Some of the projects require unified storage on our environment due to this. We prefer a storage model, like EMC.

Currently, we also use the HPE Converged Systems. We have SimpliVity nodes in our environment. We use these nodes for most systems, but we are currently having some difficulties in terms of IO utilization issues. We will probably change the systems to SL systems.

In our current situation, HPE still suggests to use the new HPE SimpliVity System in our environment, however, there are some difficulties with the implementation of this project. The project requires NFS sharing on the ACI side. 

In terms of advice to others considering the solution, with the implementation of the systems, the networking connections and VLAN settings can be done by VSAT. It would make the implementation of this kind of device simpler. New users may need to add some sort of storage access like NFS. I don't know whether putting in another controller into these devices would help. The virtualization platform can be run on a different controller.

I would caution that a user needs to calculate their IOPS and utilization size very well. If the application requires intensive party access and if they are not in the scope of the application of the SimpliVity devices, the entire application requires the IO of the hard disk located on the SimpliVity.

It's important to run a POC before implementing any application on this kind of ACI system. ACI systems cannot be addressed by every general application. You have to know your application and know your application requirements, and test your application requirements on each appliance. Then, you can proceed to the production environment on the ACI side. Sometimes your application may not be suitable for the ACI systems.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Given that it’s a new system and technology, it was critical that we found a vendor with experience and a strategic partnership with SAP.

Speedy implementation was very important for us because we were moving the paradigm. You can’t do a big data implementation and have it be slower than your traditional approach to data.

We wanted to showcase speed and acceleration and quicker time-to-market and value. That was a very important differentiator for us.

We also tried to understand the right business use cases in which ConvergedSystem is a differentiator. Prior to discussions about SAP HANA or big data, we asked ourselves, “What kind of capabilities is the organization interested in and is speed an important component of those capabilities?”

If speed and access are two important components and the answer becomes a big data ecosystem, then you say, “What are the right platforms to bring in?”

My advice to most organizations is, understand what your value propositions are, what your use cases are, where big data is a good enabler of those values, and then work from there, because that’s an easier business case to build. Rather than saying, “We just want to go from technology A to technology B.” People ask, “Why?” and you need to have the answer.

This is a good solution and it seems to have everything that we need.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

It would depend, but my advice would be that, if you're interested in a converged system, then go and buy it. However, it just depends on what the customer wants. You need to know what you want, because there are different solutions that support different workloads and things.

I don't think we are completely happy but we are not completely unhappy. We are right in the middle. It's not the system, it's the people behind the system. They have a pretty good technology, but they don't have people who know how to handle it. That's the problem. I am not saying I'm an expert on hyper-converged or on converged systems, but I have to say that for some issues, we had to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.

In terms of advice, if you are considering converged infrastructure, you should become educated first on what it is. To begin with, it is one that isn't going away. But it needs to make sense for your use case. Converged infrastructure can be perfect for virtualized data centers, but only after considering the logistics and financial implications.

You need to learn about the benefits. You need to know how the bundle will compute. You need to know how the storage is going to work into a single offering that can be deployed quickly.

Another point is budget. You are going to have an initial cost for converged infrastructure. You can prevent a lot of frustration when you are working with heterogeneous data centers. You need to know how to save money in the long term.

Don't be too fast in making decisions, don't pull the trigger without a converged infrastructure comparison; the benchmarking is very important. A lot goes into the decision to use converged Infrastructure. Some factors can be very subjective, others can be very straightforward.

Personally, I would say that, ready or not, converged Infrastructure systems are here, and they are here to stay. If you're still buying separate servers or you're still buying separate networks and storage, you might consider a converged infrastructure system. There is no other way.

I would rate HPE ConvergedSystem a nine out of ten.

I recommend this solution, I think it's easier to implement Converged than other solutions. The solution doesn't require many people to manage or maintain, or involvement with the infrastructure. That's why I would recommend it. It's easy and that's one of the advantages the customer has when they buy a Converge System, it's easier than an iOS infrastructure.

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

You should consider the service, the stability of the solution and the cost for any solution that may benefit you.

I'm very satisfied with HPE systems. We don't have any issues with their hardware or their backup software.

Look for a full solution from end to end. You also want mission critical support. We also needed a vendor with a lot of experience with the product who can help us with the migration. It's hard to find the good ones.

Be sure to dig deeper than hardware. Resellers take advantage of flash storage, but they don’t really have expertise. Nutanix has a great presentation and pricing, but don’t deliver.

HP is on the right track and is the way to go.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I think it's too soon to accurately rate the product. Based on experience so far and what I expect out of it, I'll give it an 8 (four stars). That's based on what I expect in the future and what I know it's capable of, not really our experience so far because I know we've had some bumps in the road. Again, I think some of them are our fault. I don't want to blame HPE for that. I think it's a solid product. I've used HPE blades in the past at a previous employer. They've always been rock solid. I believe in the hardware. We've been using HPE storage at my current company for three years. I used it for six years before that, rock solid. No issues. I believe in the hardware.

It's tough. One because there's now the Composable Infrastructure, the Synergy platform, which is newer. Again, this is the problem: you go with a converged solution because you want it rock solid, stable. The problem is you're always behind the technology curve when you do that because now there's a new product out that offers new features. I would have a hard time telling someone to go out and get a converged solution. One, because, well, just because it's behind technology-wise. But if they work for a company that doesn't care about the latest and greatest features, and they just want stability, sure, go with a converged solution. But if you need the latest features, and you need to stay on the bleeding edge, I couldn't recommend the converged. I could recommend the blades probably. They probably want to look at Synergy and the newer product line but it's kind of funny that the converged system already seems to be legacy hardware even though it's still new.

I'm a consultant and have experience working with the solution both as a consultant and as an end-user.

We currently have thousands of people using the solution. In our IT department, we have about ten to 15 people working on the solution as admins.

I'd advise others to choose their use cases carefully. It's suitable for certain environments but not all environments.

Others would also be sure to read the small print and really understand the solution before implementation as well. For example, beware of any additional licenses you may need.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If it had a better administrative console, I'd give it full marks.

I would advise those considering this solution to ensure they begin with the correct sizing and configuration. If the configuration is oversized, they will pay a high price for features they do not use. If the configuration is undersized, they may not have all their needs met. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

I rate the solution a six or seven out of ten.