Has anyone had experience with Hitachi's SAN devices? What I have always heard is that their products are good but their support is terrible. Any experiences with these units and/or support? Thx.
In a former life, I used to manage a couple of HDS 95xx series boxes. My experience was that to get started you definitely need to have an experienced person close by to guide you through the terms and language. All written information is in "japaneese in english", so you have to think a little when reading anything. (Label on the box: "Be careful of the drop. It is heavy." Another label that I don't remember exactly, something like "HOT to the hand. Careful!" :)
Management software is terribly slow, it takes ages to do anything. Booting the HDS is oh-so-slow (3-12 minutes). (Btw. at that time we moved from LSI to HDS, and the LSI unit booted in about 10-20 seconds! What a difference.)
HOWEVER: once in place - the HDS rocks! Impressing speed, reliable, just what you want.
For support I guess it depends on your local support channel - we were satisfied with our support, although we never had to consult them for anything more serious than disk replacements.
/Kristian