At the moment, we are extensively using SnapMirror Flex.

The most valuable feature of NetApp Private Storage is out-of-the-box integration with the SAN switches. They are much easier compared to Dell solutions. Additionally, the connector that comes with the solution that allows connection back to the Cisco SAN switches is very good. In Dell, I would need to use an FCIP or CIP port that is required.

NetApp is faster than other storage brands.

The thing I like most about it is it's unified. They're the first guys who came up with this Unified Storage concept. It can do almost everything. It's sort of a Swiss army knife in a storage box. It can do NFS, SCSI, and FC. It has its own backup solution to the cloud. 

I get a lot of comfort these days when the NetApp storage solution is also integrated into the hyperscalers. You can find the same NetApp in Azure or AWS. 

The solution scales well. 

One of the things I like the most about NetApps is that it is very easy to connect to the cloud and it is cloud-ready. I also really love the fact that they have stuck to their storage operating system for as long as I've been working with them. I started with them using ONTAP 7 and I think we are now on ONTAP 9. The company has not been bought and sold so the product has been stable under management. They have had a vision and a strategy and they have stuck to it. That is very good for me because once I got certified on the product I didn't lose the certification. I just had to recertify once when they made the move from 7-mode to cluster ONTAP. It has just been smooth sailing for me from there.  

Once you understand the NetApp protocol, you can configure it for a small box or you can configure it for the largest box imaginable. The protocol or the method has remained the same and is really backward compatible and that is one of the beauties of NetApps.  

NetApp has its own dedicated operating system, so it will not be affected by any wireless piggybacking or malware. That's the beauty of NetApp's operating system. I'm a hundred percent satisfied.

The most valuable feature is integration.

Mirroring and Snapsnots. Snapshots are very robust. Snapsnots will always work and you can dive into them and receive information. There are a lot of other storage companies that have this feature, but we feel that the NetApp Snapshot feature is the best.

It's fairly easy to use. You can teach yourself. I'm mostly Googling to find my answers.

Its flexibility and ability to configure volumes is its most valuable aspect. I have no problem configuring the product for different kinds of use cases and configuring throughput or configuring some kind of logical volumes and so on. It's pretty easy to configure flex volumes on the NetApp solutions that I use. 

The scalability is okay. 

Integration with other NetApp solutions and merging them is manageable.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

The stability has been very good.

• Speed
• Reliability

Disaster recovery. And I like the security very much. I think they have the needed options for security. Can manage NPS using the same tools and process that we use today.

It's easy to set it up, it's easy to manage because you have a GUI that is very simple to administrate, to do a lot of tasks. I think this is another point that is very important, you have good tools, easy tools to administrate your storage and can change anything and be alerted about some issue in your storage wherever you are.

Certainly the cost. It's something that we own. We negotiate whatever deal we can get on the type of storage that it is, but it's totally under our control, as opposed to putting it out in the cloud. We like that.