"We rely on NetApp storage because ..."

[friea]

Ok, all right ... I'll admit to fishing but would love to hear from NetApp users checking out the community. Do you love everything about NetApp? Did you simply inherit a datacenter full of NetApp gear? Or ... ??

[reinoud7]

Hi Friea,

This is naughty question

I can mention here the odious reasons (snapshots, flexclones, snapmanager for exchange, unified storage, ...) but I think that there are 3 things more important:

• NetApp is a technical oriented company whit a very open culture

• NetApp try to make the difference with software, vitalization and data management

• (most important) I have a very low TCO: 0.75 Full Time Equivalent for managing 0.5 PB (500 TB).

Greetings,

Reinoud

[danpancamo]

1. Snapshots

2. Snapmirrors

3. Multi-protocol support

4. It works 99.90% of the time. 2 more 9's would be better

5. It still exists after 5 years

6. We can afford it

[reinoud7]

We forget what snapshots means for your storage environment. As a NetApp user, you find this a normal feature of a storage device; you take without thinking 10 snapshots, 100 snapshots and even 200 snapshots of a volume. People who don't use NetApp never take snapshots (maybe only one for taking a backup) and when a NetApp customer talks about their snapshots use, the not netapp user thinks that you are crazy and stupid.

I was in discussion this week with 20 other colleagues (of large companies) and only the guys with a NetApp gear toke snapshots.

A long story to say that indeed snapshots is still one of the most famous features of NetApp.

[netapp_beni]

I would like to add one pro:

Support of NetApp is superior!

I'm working in a support company where we maintain several vendors (HP, Cisco, Brocade,..), but NetApp has, without doubt, the best hardware support.

I must also mention that there are various levels of support - read €€/$$.

If there are some nasty problems, NetApp support engineers are always ready to help.

Greetings,

Bert.

[reinoud7]

I agree completly and we need to add the NOW-site on our list for Friea.