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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FreeNAS

    Score5.4 out of 10
    N/AFreeNAS is an open source operating system that allows nearly any hardware serve as a network-attached storage device. It was developed by iXsystems.N/A

    HPE Nimble Storage

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ANimble Storage was acquired by HPE in 2017. The enterprise flash array product line now goes by the name HPE Nimble Storage.N/A
    Pricing
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Considered Both Products
    iXsystems
    No answer on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Features
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Enterprise Flash Array Storage
    Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of FreeNAS and HPE Nimble Storage
    Feature
    FreeNAS
    -
    Ratings
    HPE Nimble Storage
    8.7
    12 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Flash Array Performance00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Flash Array Integration00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
    Data Compression00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    Non-Intrusive Upgrades00 Ratings10.012 Ratings
    Simplicity00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
    Power Savings00 Ratings5.011 Ratings
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    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
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    Medium-sized Companies
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Everpure FlashArray
    Score8.2 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (28 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreeNASHPE Nimble Storage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS is well suited for most storage serving scenarios, whether it be for an office file server, backup destinations, data replication across the internet, or as backend storage for virtual machines. It can serve various types of clients via a plethora of standard protocols and can easily integrate with existing infrastructure using LDAP authentication and so on. It's pretty simple to use (it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the underlying technologies) and almost maintenance-free. One scenario that springs to mind that it may not be appropriate for (yet) is as S3 storage. However, S3 functionality was added in a recent release and may have improved greatly since then. I'm sure it will eventually work very well for this.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    HPE Nimble Hybrid storage is very cost effective that can provide the same Latency, I/O and Bandwidth compared with any other All FLASH storage which is 3 times expensive than this. From a feature comparison standpoint of view, there isn't much difference between Hybrid Vs ALL Flash. HPE Nimble Storage uses ALL Flash disk at the front end to process the data thus by reducing the cost by using a regular SAS disk at the back end. Its the software and the algorithm that HPE Nimble StorageE uses to achieve this. having said that, the overall data reduction, de-duplication and compression is above the mark as what the sales team promised initially. Overall, the storage is performing well without any challenges.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    iXsystems
    • The FreeNAS web interface is modern looking. It makes tasks like provisioning drives into raid volumes easy.
    • The ZFS raid option allows you to add in an SSD as a cache drive to increase performance.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • HP Nimble is basically an all in one SAN with SSD cache or in some cases fully SSD based however the thing it does the best is its front end GUI and user management capability making it easy for anyone to ramp up on managing it quickly.
    • The Nimble SAN is also very easily managed when it comes to hardware management. Outside of some major internal parts such as the mainboard, almost everything in the system is duplicated so single failures never bring the system down. Power supplies and drives are easily swapped out.
    • Nimble has incredibly capable and easily accessible support that is available 24/7.
    • The price point on Nimble, though higher than piecing together a home made SAN out of spare Windows Servers, is perfect even for some SMB's.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    iXsystems
    • Not good for beginners as it requires deep understanding of networking and storage.
    • Most of the good and required features are not available in free version.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • I'd like the GUI to include more information for some of the features such as replication data totals each night. You have to go to the command line for this.
    • It would be nice to have a feature built into the GUI that would show you the command line equivalent to get the same results you are seeing in the GUI.
    • Although the intial setup was easy, they could always improve on that portion. During my setup, I did have to do a lot of back and forth with research on their site as to what each setting was that I was setting up. They could have provided some sort of description for each field within the setup that would have made it easier to know what they were having us set up.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Nimble is doing its job well and any issues that do come up cause the Nimble support team to alert us before we would potentially see an impact to our production environment. I do wish we could expand into the unused space in the CS210 shelf which is limited by what I assume is a marketing/sales strategy, but we will likely add shelves moving forward.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    iXsystems
    No answers on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Almost perfect, some hoops to jump through after major upgrade, but overall simple and effective. Our storage administrator really likes the integration with vmware as it makes his life easier. Also it was no trouble integrating it with our active directory credentials. The only issue we had was getting the plugin in VMWare going initially.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    iXsystems
    There were some things that can be found by other users on forums and Google and some things that were not.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Any time I have had to contact support, they have always been quick to respond, and very efficient in resolving any issues. When an action has been required on our side for a fix, they have been very helpful in explaining step by step what was required, and when replacement parts have been needed, we've had them within 24 hours.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS effectively uses all resources really well and it is highly recommended for in premises NAS. It has unlimited ROI as it is really free and open-source. The only payment we need to pay is when we need any support from those guys. FreeNAS helps us to effectively do our work with the legacy systems as it manages all the components really well. FreeNAS although rebranded to TrueNAS will still be there until our legacy systems run.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    We used a Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage array for many years and it worked well. A big issue was that upgrading firmware required system downtime and during one upgrade I was unable to bring the systems back up afterwards. I spent several days on the phone over a holiday weekend with Dell and VMware support in order to get my systems back up and running. It made me very nervous about doing firmware upgrades after that.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    iXsystems
    • Low-Cost Network Attached Storage
    • Provides additional network storage to support client & business operations
    • FreeNAS secures our data using custom encryption keys
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • 100% uptime 4 years and counting in a 24/7 environment.
    • Long hardware support lifecycle, with extremely affordable maintenance renewal plans that provide real value.
    • Nimble has been the most cost-effective SAN solution I have ever deployed.
    • The inital costs, ongoing maintenance, and administration requirements were all 50% less than EMC and NetApp.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots