Mmy opinion is the software for the hitachi stuff all sucks. There doesn't
seem to be any support website, I have no idea where you get docs, if they
exist or are even translated into English and the programs themselves are
just strange and somewhat crippled.

Mmy opinion is the software for the hitachi stuff all sucks. There doesn't
seem to be any support website, I have no idea where you get docs, if they
exist or are even translated into English and the programs themselves are
just strange and somewhat crippled. I might use three different Hitachi
programs at once just to add a LUN to a host. It makes no sense, other
than Hitachi had non-technical people that can't spell SAN write the
management softare.

The hardware itself seems good. Every once in a while a drive fails and
somebody shows up to replace it.

Uh.. oh. This is turning into a religious war. Not to brag but let me
tell you my personal knowledge/experience about storage before I get on my
soap box. I have been working with HDS and EMC stuff since 1999. I am
now a one man storage consultant. I also know the celerra and the
clariion very well, oh... NetApp( I love Netapp!). Furthermore, I know
the replication technologies of all of them.. SRDF/A, timefinder,
Truecopy, Shadowcopy, and the NAS replications. I have hands on knowledge
of all of them and am actively engaged in these technologies, now.

Now, if I were to put a storage infrastructure into my own data
center..... what would I buy?? My answer is HDS & NetApp, hands down.
From my experience, you turn both of those on and you can walk away from
them and go to your cubicle to spend all your time surfing on the web to
find the best place to buy a GI Joe for your son's bithday. And, yes HDS
is not perfect. Up until the recent versions of Tuning manager, their
software sucked. Also, their support staff and sales people are limited.
They don't buy me as many steak dinners as EMC sales people.

As far as replication technologies. EMC and HDS are night and day. The
complexities of SRDF is insane compared with Truecopy. In Truecopy you
edit the HORCM files and kick the new disks in the pant and away they go.
SRDF, you have to issue very complicated RDF commands and then you have to
stop the entire replication group so you can add the new disks. Don't
even try to compare Celerra replication with NetApp. In my mind, the
Celerra doesn't even deserve to be considered considered next to the
NetApp.

My personal theory is that EMC thrives on complexity and make more money
with support services. Admittedly, I have personally gained from their
products since I work in an EMC customer site.