Likelihood to Recommend It [Cisco UCS Manager] is extremely well suited to large virtual infrastructure environments with resource dense blades. This solution is also great if you want to consolidate a large number of servers (if they are servers that need to stay physical, but can fit in the profile of a blade) - this would reduce data center space utilization as well as power and cooling. Cisco UCS Manager is also great if you're looking for centralized management of a larger number of servers. This would not be a great solution if you have a very small shop - it's not cheap and probably wouldn't give you a ROI if you only have a couple dozen servers total. I'd say it would be overkill for small shops, but if you have the money and don't care, you'll still like it.
Read full review Panzura works well for companies that have a high amount of data with cross site collaboration being done. The caching ensures you don't need huge investments of storage at each site and the cloud storage ensures high availability over what can be done locally. Also helps eliminate duplicate data across sites and/or small variations in the same data.
Ryan Lee Enterprise Infrastructure Supervisor
Read full review Pros It is very all inclusive for management of every part our our Cisco blade center. It allows us to directly connect to a hardware-based server in the blade center as though we were physically at the console. It allows us to monitor the entire system for faults. It lets us manage connectivity. It is set to alert us via email if a fault occurs. Read full review Real time file locking Backup and recovery Easy access to all your files Read full review Cons Automation: There is a simple power-shell CMD lets, but it leaves more to be desired. Navigation: Navigating the interface can be confusing. Integration: Integration with ESXi hosts while doing FW upgrades would be hugely beneficial without the need for additional tools. Read full review I would like to see more connectors. Tie in to traditional block storage or NAS. Additional cloud connectors to products like Hitachi Content Platform. I would like to see a collaborative product created between Panzura and Riverbed. I envision an almost perfect small footprint ROBO solution where Riverbed provides the compute+WAN optimization and Panzura provides the storage/risiliancy components. Combine the boxes into a single 4U solution and you have a near perfect product for remote offices. Read full review Support Rating Cisco UCSM Support has been very quick to reply and address our concerns, issues, and questions. We have found that Cisco's documentation is clear and concise and fairly easy to find. With Cisco support's help, we are able to quickly and safely meet the demands of our end-users, consistently.
Read full review Hands down support is the best part of Panzura. Their techs are always helpful, always knowledgeable, and consistently solve complex problems quickly. You can definitely tell they hire their support folks from the top tier of other companies and they go above and beyond what I have come to expect in terms of support compared to other companies.
Ryan Lee Enterprise Infrastructure Supervisor
Read full review Alternatives Considered I think UCS Manager would be able very comparable to other vendors offerings when it comes to server configuration. I think Cisco did a good job in giving you full access to many options that you might not see with Dell or HPE. Every manufacturer would need a similar tool to control their server environment, but I think what Cisco has built into their Manager is a little better than others I've used. You can just see and change so many settings. I would say that is also a bit of a negative by a little bit because sometimes it is hard to dig in and find what you need to change and often might need to reach out to TAC or take a training course to understand all of the interface.
Read full review There are several other devices but Panzura is best of class.
Read full review Return on Investment The positive is I was able to consolidate my small server infrastructure from 3 racks to one rack giving me space back and much power savings The negative would be it could feel a little daunting to manage as there are many tabs and pieces to the interface. Read full review Exceptional positive impact on availability - as users move so do their files. Panzura+DFS allowed for simple chargeback models to be implemented. Read full review ScreenShots Panzura CloudFS Screenshots