IBM Spectrum Virtualize Review

It has a lot of advanced functions for a reasonable price

What is our primary use case?

We have a lot of different customers, such as banks and retail customers. In banks, it is mainly used for open environment testing. We have some retail customers, and they use it mostly for their test environments. Retail customers also use the DS8000 for production, because it is a more robust platform.

It is performing well in most cases. The disk reliability is not that good, not as good as with some of these products.

Most of our customers run their solutions via on-premise instances.

How has it helped my organization?

The versatility is the main benefit. Since it virtualizes everything, they use it for so many different things. 

It is also good for them when we do upgrades, etc. When we add storage behind it, the product is also good for the customers because their customers do not notice that anything is happening due to the virtualization.

What is most valuable?

Its versatility, as it has a lot of advanced functions for a reasonable price.

What needs improvement?

We would like the right support and the ability to add disks concurrently to arrays. There are big arrays now, and if a customer wants add more disks to it, you have to have another array. Adding disks to existing arrays is one of the most demanded things from our customers.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The SVC port (virtualized port) is very stable, but the Storwize port is not so stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable.

How is customer service and technical support?

In the past, the technical support has been very good. However, lately, it has not been so good as they are moving the support to Bulgaria. We are really unhappy about this.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend IBM Spectrum Virtualize.

Mainly, our customers are IBM friendly and have mostly IBM equipment.

Customers' most important criteria when selecting a vendor: cost.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Business Partner.
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