Nimble Storage is a popular data storage solution with global reach. In 2017, Nimble Storage was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Due to this acquisition, Nimble is alternatively known as HPE Nimble storage. Nimble Storage was best known for its advanced approach to storage, integrated predictive analytics, and organization learning to optimize performance, heighten responsibility, and modify management. Indeed, Nimble Storage's InfoSight platform was a key differentiator. It proactively used predictive analytics and machine learning to monitor and manage storage infrastructure. The aim was to determine potential issues before they could impact performance and to provide insights into the storage environment. This article will explain the benefits of utilizing Nimble storage equipment in your data center and why it is the best storage solution as we compare it to its competitors, Nexsan and Tegile.
Benefits of Nimble Storage
Nimble leads the way in storage flash array solutions because of its numerous premium characteristics that make it superior to its competitors like Nexsan and Tegile, which are as follows:
1. Adaptive Flash Architecture
Nimble Storage frequently utilizes an adaptive flash architecture in combination with both solid-state drives (SSDs) and conventional hard disk drives (HDDs). This hybrid approach proposed presents a balance between high-performance flash retention for often accessed data and cost-effective, high-capacity HDD storage for less frequently accessed data.
2. Data Reduction Technologies
Nimble Storage integrated data reduction technologies facilitate deduplication and compression of data. These applications assist in optimizing storage efficiency by reducing the overall storage footprint, which is essential in flash-based retention environments.
3. Ease of Management
Nimble Storage products are designed with ease of management in mind. The user-friendly program and easy storage management instrument made it easier for IT engineers to configure, display, and manage storage resources, contributing to functional efficiency.
4. Unified Storage Solutions
Nimble Storage offers unified solutions supporting block and file storage within a single platform. This versatility allows organizations to address various storage needs with a consolidated solution.
Why Choose Nimble Storage Over Its Competitors Like Nexsan and Tegile?
Below is an in-depth analysis of Nimble Storage as it compares to Nexsan and Tegile. Nimble Storage has unique features that differentiate itself from its competitors, making them the preferred choice for businesses seeking scalable and reliable storage technology.
1. Performance of Nimble Storage
Nimble Storage arrays quickly store data and fulfill the least demanding applications, from Microsoft SQL Server to VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). Elegant models can achieve "single-controller performance" of about 450,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second) in an active-standby controller architecture with sub-millisecond latency. At the same time, Tegile and Nexsan claim their all-flash array can sustain 200,000 IOPS and 100,000 IOPS, respectively. CASL uses multiple mechanisms to optimize disk utilization, allowing more data to be stored in the same capacity. These include inline data compression that reduces the data footprint by 30 to 75%, instant redirect-on-write snapshots, zero-copy cloning based on snapshots, and thin provisioning that allocates data blocks on demand.
Indeed, Nimble Storage easily scales to fit IT and business needs, enabling customers to boost performance and capacity, done both flexibly and non-disruptively, for complete investment protection. Customers can scale up performance with more compute power for higher throughput and IOPS and with more cache to accommodate more active data. To scale capacity, add additional storage disk shelves to an existing array. Demanding environments can even linearly scale both performance and capacity beyond the physical limitations of a single array and out to a cluster using any combination of Nimble Storage CS-Series arrays, preserving storage investments and avoiding forklift upgrades.
For highly demanding environments, or for the purpose of eliminating multiple storage silos to increase operational efficiency, customers can seamlessly combine any Nimble Storage arrays to form a scale-out cluster. Nimble's scale-out architecture features dynamic load balancing, eliminating performance hot spots and simplifying operations. It also performs multi-array data striping, enabling any application to leverage the scale-out cluster's collective hardware resources fully. Moreover, grouping arrays and re-configuring nodes, pools, and volumes within the cluster as workloads shift is seamless and incredibly simple, with no disruption to running applications. Ultimately, all hardware resources can be managed as a single storage entity.
2. Scalability and Flexibility
Numerous data storage solutions can easily "scale up" or add disk capacity without increasing CPU or memory; Nimble Storage can also "scale out" your data storage to better execution and capability. You can add or remove resources to a system as you need to change. In a nutshell, Nimble storage solutions supply high performance, flexibility, scalability, Veeam desegregation, cloud integration, and more, all while offering 79% lower storage disbursal.
3. Data Protection and Reliability
Ensuring that your data is protected is critical to managing Nimble arrays. Volumes that hold multiple components of an application, such as databases and transaction logs, can be grouped in volume collections. A volume collection includes a set of protection schedules to create snapshots of each associated volume at specified intervals.
The protection schedule specifies the downstream partner to whom the snapshots are sent. It does not have a downstream partner if a protection schedule is not used for replication. The downstream partner specifies the location to replicate the data synchronously for synchronous replication.
Snapshots are captured synchronously to ensure a consistent backup of the entire application environment. Generally, each application uses a different volume collection.
Nimble arrays ship with several predefined protection templates to use as the basis for volume collections. Protection templates include snapshot and replication schedules, as well as retention policies that are based on best practices for commonly used applications. You can copy the predefined templates and modify the copies or create new protection templates to best match the requirements of applications used in your environment.
All volumes assigned to the volume collection use the same protection configuration of scheduled snapshots, replication, and retention settings. After the volume collection is created, it can be modified as needed.
Even if you plan to take snapshots of volumes manually, you can create a volume collection without schedules on those volumes. This capability is available in the command-line interface (CLI). This guarantee is a performance warranty. For new HPE Nimble Storage arrays, the guarantee begins from the initial purchase date. For existing HPE Nimble Storage arrays, the guarantee begins at the start of a support renewal contract. HPE Nimble Storage measures your unplanned downtime (if any) annually from when your guarantee begins. Support credit(s) are based on an annual measurement of unplanned downtime: –Cumulative unplanned downtime > 31.536 sec but < 600 sec is eligible for a 1-month credit. –Cumulative unplanned downtime > 600 sec is eligible for a 3-month credit. Support credit(s) accrue until your current 1-, 3-, or 5-year support contract ends. Unplanned downtime does not include planned or customer-caused downtime (including but not limited to if a customer shuts down the array), environmental downtime (for example, power outages, network outages), or downtime that results from problems outside the array. See your HPE Nimble Storage HW/SW warranty exclusions for more details.
If you qualify for support credit(s), they can only be used when purchasing a renewal support contract. They will be applied as a reduction on the array head renewal contract upon review or validation by HPE Nimble Storage support. Unplanned downtime calculations and support credit(s) are determined solely by HPE Nimble Storage. HPE Nimble Storage reserves the right to modify, cancel, or otherwise update the HPE 6-Nines Guarantee program at any time in its sole discretion.
4. Cost-Effectiveness
The first array in the series, the Nimble AF20, comes with up to 168 TB of adequate storage capacity and is priced similarly to Pure's X10. The price of a Nimble AF20 starts at $40,000, new. The other device The KR Group offers customers is the AF40, which you can buy with up to 682 TB of adequate storage capacity. Its starting price of $90,000 is similar to Pure's X2. These devices have the effectiveness mentioned above because of their performance, use case lifespan, and reliability.
5. User Experience and Support
Nimble Storage systems typically offer a simple user surface, making it easier for administrators to manage and monitor storage resources. Features like InfoSight, which provides predictive analytics, aimed to enhance user experience by proactively addressing potential issues.
Positive customer feedback and satisfaction played a role in Nimble Storage's leadership. Organizations often praise the performance, reliability, and support provided by Nimble Storage Solutions.
Nimble Storage was acknowledged for its InfoSight program, which leverages predictive analytics to evaluate and prevent potential retention issues. This retroactive approach provides a positive user experience by minimizing interruption and optimizing system performance.
Nimble Storage users could participate in forums, communities, and online resources where they could share experiences, ask questions, and learn from each other. These platforms contribute to a collaborative user community.
HPE, as the parent company of Nimble Storage, generally provides comprehensive customer support. This may include technical assistance, troubleshooting, and access to firmware updates, which offer a more favorable storage environment than Nexsan and Tegile. Users can often access a support portal and knowledge base and contact support representatives for assistance.
6. Third-Party Support Options
Opting for third-party maintenance hardware support for your Nimble storage devices through ReluTech offers several benefits over HPE Nimble’s warranty. The one-size-fits-all maintenance approach that HPE Nimble provides to its customers may deter some organizations that prefer more personalized service level agreements, ensuring the support is tailored to the needs of the IT department.
ReluTech's independent evaluation of issues avoids potential conflicts of interest inherent in manufacturer-determined assessments. Their experience across various products and technologies can bring a broader knowledge base for diverse IT solutions. The stability and consistency in ReluTech's terms of service contrast with HPE Nimble’s reserved rights to modify or cancel their program, providing a more reliable option for customers.
7. Future-Proof Technology
Nimble Storage is a future-proof technology because it is scaleable to accommodate data growth and other required resources. It is compatible with existing and emerging standards, ensuring seamless integration with other technology. Nimble Storage systems have a surplus of spare parts both available from the OEM and the secondary market available when compared to that of Nexsan and Tegile. Parts are often inexpensive and simple to procure, making Nimble Storage both the most cost-effective and reliable storage solution you can install in your data center.
Conclusion
Nimble Storage is a leading data storage solution. Handy storage optimizes performance, enhances reliability, and simplifies management. Nimble Storage is a superior choice over Nexsan and Tegile because the Nimble solution performs better than its competitors. With HPE Nimble Storage, you don't need to deal with unexpected data storage surprises such as unplanned downtime and expensive support costs. Organizations can have high expectations with lower costs and improved performance. HPE Nimble Storage makes storage effortless through a unique solution that reduces complexity, eliminates tradeoffs, and improves enterprise agility from installation to upgrade.
If you are looking for a competitive quote on HPE Nimble Storage equipment, or need to have comprehensive support on your Nimble device doing EOSL, request a quote today to see how much you can save with ReluTech third-party support.
