Object Storage with Effortless Scaling and Impressive Speeds at a Great Value
What do you like best about the product?
Zadara's zStorage platform makes it simple for us to scale our object storage target with minimal daily effort. The storage array is dedicated to our use, and the read and write speeds are outstanding considering the cost.
What do you dislike about the product?
Although the management GUI for the Object Storage (NGOS) platform has seen steady improvements, it remains quite limited. Performing tasks such as manual deletions or configuring advanced permissions (IAM) is still very restricted, and the majority of operations must be carried out through the command line.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
zStorage enables us to deliver a dedicated storage platform that can scale alongside our requirements, all while remaining on a dedicated array. Since our customers prefer not to have their data stored in a public cloud, zStorage gives us the ability to meet their preferences and offer a solution that is both flexible and cost-effective with its consumption-based pricing.
Troubleshooting becomes more accessible and management improves over time
What is our primary use case?
I use this product as storage. Specifically, I use it as big storage. That's the main use case for
Zadara.
What is most valuable?
Zadara's troubleshooting feature is very valuable for me. After the last update, managing the product became easier. Management is more straightforward and useful. These improvements are crucial for my operations.
What needs improvement?
The initial installation was difficult because many steps required the command line interface (CLI). Maintenance can also be complicated, especially when deeper troubleshooting requires navigating the CLI and searching for logs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zadara for approximately five years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
After installation, I have not had any issues with this product.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability as nine out of ten. I have not encountered any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I do not use scalability currently, as my system has not been updated in terms of storage value.
How are customer service and support?
I always have good experiences with customer service. I rate the technical support from Zadara as nine out of ten. Support is always good, and I have had no problems.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The first installation was difficult for me because there were many steps involved using the command line interface.
What about the implementation team?
Only one person was required for the installation of the product.
What was our ROI?
Zadara saves both time and money. It saves approximately fifty percent in both aspects.
What other advice do I have?
As for the pros and cons, the main concerns are the complexity of the initial installation and the complicated maintenance due to the CLI usage. Overall, I do not have other complaints. My overall rating for Zadara is eight out of ten.
Enhancing storage management efficiency with user-friendly experience
What is our primary use case?
Our customers are using Zadara for their research and development environments. We provide infrastructure for government projects, but we are often not fully aware of their specific usage.
I typically use it for our infrastructure and offer both Zadara and Microsoft Azure to our customers.
How has it helped my organization?
Zadara provides storage and a load balancer, which improves storage management efficiency. It's a user-friendly platform, both for our customers and our engineering team.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is its storage management capability. I find Zadara's user-friendliness from both the customer and engineering perspectives highly appreciated.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in pricing as it is currently quite expensive. Adding AI capabilities could enhance the offering as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Zadara for almost one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of performance, Zadara is good and user-friendly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zadara is a fully-fledged platform, and our customers are happy with its use. It has supported business growth effectively.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good. However, we lack adequate response times and a 24/7 service level agreement.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The implementation process is straightforward.
What was our ROI?
The cost is not cheaper compared to AWS, and we have not seen the expected return on investment. Different regions also face digital pricing challenges.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is not favorable as Zadara does not provide competitive rates for regions like South Africa and Ethiopia. The pricing is considered expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are considering switching to AWS because of cheaper pricing.
What other advice do I have?
If companies have the budget, I recommend Zadara for small business classes due to its robust performance and user-friendliness.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Block storage and NAS capabilities but requires nondestructive firmware upgrades
What is our primary use case?
We are using Zadara for our non-critical storage needs. We use both their block storage and also their NAS capabilities.
How has it helped my organization?
It provides very satisfactory storage performance, however, we don't use it for mission-critical applications.
What is most valuable?
We use both their block storage and also their NAS capabilities.
What needs improvement?
Every time they do a firmware upgrade, it should be nondestructive. Currently, when we do firmware upgrades, it sometimes causes issues and is not as nondisruptive as desired. It would be beneficial if they could support real-time synchronous replication.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution since 2017.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We experienced some issues with stability. There were some downtime and glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
From one to ten, I would rate scalability as eight. We have no issues with it.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is fine. The response time and quality are pretty good, with no issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We moved to other vendors.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple. We did not face any difficulties with it.
What about the implementation team?
We worked with a third-party provider in our geography with the reseller.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a reasonable price, so I'd say it's around a seven on a scale of one to ten.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I would say Huawei, but I haven't used Huawei yet.
What other advice do I have?
Within certain constraints, users should use it only for their nonproduction workloads. Alternatively, for production, it should only be for noncritical workloads.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Cloud Outage - No Communication
What do you like best about the product?
Fast, mostly reliable block storage that allows me to connect the same disk to two different machines in two different AWS AZs
What do you dislike about the product?
On April 17, 2024 Zadara had a three hour outage. This was a significant disruption to our business. While we were happy they restored service in the timeframe they did, we haven't received any follow up communication on the root cause, so we don't know if we can trust them going forward.
All calls to their support line are auto-forwarding to a voicemail box, so it appears their support is woefully understaffed.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Zadara allows us to connect the same volume to two different EC2 instances at the same time. You can't do this with AWS EC2 volumes. It allows fast failover between availability zones in AWS.
Ease of use and dependability
What do you like best about the product?
Set it and forget it basically, we use it for off site backups
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing really it works like it should nothing to dislike
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Storing off site backups is what we use it for most. It gives great Peace of mind
Flexible storage
What do you like best about the product?
I like that we can use one storage system for NAS or iscsi connectivity.
What do you dislike about the product?
I don't like that the NAS features are not as robust as our other NAS and the system is not in the cloud totally.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Backup target and NAS storage for users unstructured data.
Zadara for Everyone
What do you like best about the product?
I like how you only pay for the storage you use and how they proactively monitor the system,
What do you dislike about the product?
For some, it is difficult to budget due to possible cost fluctuations
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have been able to provide storage that grows instead of having to pay all at once and have unused storage sitting around doing nothing for long periods of time.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Like anything else, ask for a trial.
Enterprise Class Storage for Hybrid Deployment
What do you like best about the product?
Easy integration with on prem AD allowed us to apply NTFS permissions
What do you dislike about the product?
there is nothing specifically that I dislike
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We wanted to make sure we provide scalable and paygo model for our storage whcih integrates with onprem.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you are looking for cost effective file and object storage in cloud Zadara is a good option.
Great all around
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of scalability in infrastructure design. We're able to quickly react to customer requests and requirements without much overhead.
What do you dislike about the product?
VPSA sizing could use a little more flexibility or fine-tuning with system resource requirements. A raid 60 system will inherently require lower resource requirements than a raid 10, but the VPSA engine creation does not have a way of correlating or adjusting. Overall this is an incredibly minor and nit-picked downside.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The core issue Zadara tackles is block storage flexibility and scalability. Uptime has been flawless, while allowing us to throttle up storage quickly and quietly.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Please give them a fair shake. The support teams are great to work with and very responsive. We've had nothing but positive and pleasant experiences with the company on every front.