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Voice of a FlexPod Customer: The Cost Advantage

Bruno Messina
Bruno Messina
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One of the most consequential IT projects you can undertake today is to digitally transform your approach to data center management. But a digital transformation can be tricky to pull off. Not only do you need to know where your current approach falls short, you also have to understand what it takes to adopt a better one.

So how do you do it? By starting out with a bit of unbiased feedback from your peers. That’s why we launched this new blog series highlighting reviews by verified customers of ours on IT Central Station.

In this edition, we see how one customer has financially benefited from switching to the FlexPod® data center solution from NetApp and Cisco.  

About the Reviewer

The reviewer is an architect at an energy/utilities company with over 10,000 employees. For nearly four years, they have used FlexPod for their VMware workloads.  

What They Gained with FlexPod

Comparing FlexPod to their previous setup—a legacy VMware environment—they found the cost advantage of FlexPod to be obvious. How obvious? So far, they have cut costs by approximately a quarter.

“We have saved approximately 20% to 30% by using this solution.”

Aside from the financial benefits, FlexPod has also helped them achieve a fully integrated system. That’s because FlexPod, a joint innovation between NetApp and Cisco, seamlessly connects with critical technologies such as the Cisco B200 M4 and M5 blades.

They additionally highlighted the quality of FlexPod customer support, giving it a perfect score.

“Technical support is very good. I would rate it 10 out of 10.”  

What the Initial Setup Looked Like

 No initial setup surprises here. The reviewer noted that because all the necessary elements were there, ready to run, their FlexPod setup process was clear-cut.

Parting Thoughts

As the reviewer explained, FlexPod has better positioned the business to thrive, bringing them:

  • A 20% to 30% reduction in costs
  • The ability to integrate with their NetApp and Cisco technologies
  • Excellent technical support


Overall, they rated FlexPod 9 out of 10.

Want to check out the full review? Visit IT Central Station.

Bruno Messina

Bruno Messina joined NetApp in 2018 and works in product marketing for FlexPod. His previous experience includes a career in product marketing of UCS servers for Cisco Systems and Solaris server marketing and competitive analysis at both Oracle and Sun Microsystems, where he joined in 2000. Bruno spent ten years in various roles of competitive analysis and product management at Sun Microsystems, leading analysis in both the workgroup and enterprise servers. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Bruno spent time finishing his MBA education and worked for two years at Cadence working on product marketing for both board-level and board timing tools. Bruno holds both a BSEE and MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y..

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