IBM Aspera on Cloud vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Barring the cost-prohibitive nature of some of the IBM Aspera solutions, IBM Aspera on Cloud is the appropriate solution for many file transfer workloads. Even at smaller volumes and lighter-weight files, Aspera's Hot Folder automation is a well-built and excellent solution for most file transfer needs.

Incentivized

It is well suited to store lower-tier data in the cloud to free up space on primary storage. For our use, it is really only currently viable for things like snapshots and backups. Other organizations may find it useful for secondary-tier archival storage as well. At this point, I don't really trust any cloud solution as primary storage for anything. This may change in the future, but for backups and such, it is a nice option.

Incentivized

• Ease of use: the Graphical User Interface doesn't require technical know-how to operate
• Delivery Receipts: this allows us the confidence to know our files have reached our customers
• Activity Monitor: lets you know how much data you have used, which is important for budgeting reasons.

Incentivized

• Integrates into major Cloud vendors.
• Integrates with NetApp infrastructure.

Incentivized

• Track upload/download usage OVERALL to know how much space is left
• Track cloud storage overall to know how much space is left
• More easily send single links to users for download, rather than full access (I know it is possible, but it is not intuitive)

Incentivized

• Tighter integration with third-party (non-storage) monitoring tools
• CMDB classifications break down when integrating with ServiceNow
• Migrating storage workloads from one cloud service provider to another

Incentivized

My experience with Aspera applications and with other vendors. My score will go to 8 as soon as AoC's Files App has the Search Through Sub-folders feature. We want to remove Aspera Shares, which has an older inefficient user interface.

Incentivized

The support from IBM is fast and reliable. Very knowledgeable engineers provide you with the support on Aspera. We had a very good experience when opened tickets and we were able to get our issues resolved quickly. Most solutions are provided within a day so you can expect a quick turnaround time. Overall, the support has been very good.

Incentivized

Haven't had to use it.

Incentivized

The service provided by the authorized vendor was excellent. It was a good collaboration between the vendor IT team and internal IT team. They provided us with a timeline and we verified and approved that timeline. Daily stand ups and weekly meetups were conducted to update the internal team on progress. They were able to deliver all deliverables on time also, they conducted both alpha testing and beta version testing in time. Overall, they were able to complete the implementation in the given timeline.

Incentivized

Teams can be really slow and the downloads sometimes come out corrupted or the program will just quit or it doesn't seem to like all files to download. While IBM Aspera is more universal and versatile with the files it downloads. Teams might look flashy but its not the best with actually transferring important data quickly like Aspera.

Incentivized

ScienceLogic SL1 and SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM) were the closest competitors to meeting our business objectives. Tivoli Storage Manager was not able to meet the initial requirements. There was a significant overlap of capabilities between ScienceLogic SL1, SolarWinds SRM, and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. The latter provided a more positive and cohesive experience for our administrators and executives.

Incentivized

• Fast transfer of internal files means that more space available at production for more features
• Internal logs are now easier to transfer and faster to batch process, giving the ability to draw out conclusions and work on improvements faster
• Good metrics by aspera lets report creation of any transfer easy and transparent. Was previously a tiresome thing to do

• Increased costs at lower data volumes but better pricing by 20% over 10Tb
• Easier to manage storage volumes with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP
• Better performance with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Incentivized