Maven Services
Nimble Earned Your Trust with Reliability. Maven Keeps It Running.
Nimble CS-series. AF all-flash. HF hybrid. NimbleOS experts who understand CASL, InfoSight, and every generation of Nimble architecture.
Nimble Storage earned a legendary reputation for reliability. The CASL (Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout) architecture, combined with InfoSight’s predictive analytics, delivered 99.9999% measured availability and a support experience that other vendors couldn’t match. Nimble customers became Nimble evangelists. Then HPE acquired Nimble in 2017, evolved the platform into Alletra 6000, and is now pushing customers toward Alletra MP B10000 and GreenLake consumption models.
But the Nimble architecture, whether branded as Nimble or running the original CS-series, is still delivering reliable, predictable performance across thousands of production environments. The challenge is that legacy Nimble models (CS-series and early AF/HF generations) are approaching or past end of support, while HPE’s Pointnext renewals for aging Nimble systems are climbing. Maven IT Solutions provides NimbleOS-expert third-party maintenance for every generation of the Nimble lineage, delivering the same direct-to-expert experience that made Nimble’s original support famous.
Nimble Customers Are Loyal. HPE Is Testing That Loyalty.
InfoSight is tied to your HPE contract. Nimble’s InfoSight predictive analytics, the cloud-based engine that proactively identifies and resolves issues, is tied to your HPE support contract. When you leave Pointnext, you may lose InfoSight access. This is HPE’s strongest retention lever. Maven’s engineers provide the same proactive monitoring and issue resolution directly, without the cloud portal.
Legacy Nimble is approaching EOSL. CS-series (CS1000, CS3000, CS5000, CS7000), early AF-series (AF1000–AF9000), and early HF-series models are approaching or past end of support. HPE is pushing these customers to Alletra MP or newer platforms.
GreenLake consumption model push. Every Nimble/Alletra renewal conversation now includes a GreenLake pitch: converting your CapEx storage investment into an OpEx consumption model. For organizations that prefer owning their infrastructure, this isn’t the conversation they want to have.
Nimble / Alletra Models We Support
Nimble AF Series (All-Flash)
| Model | Generation | Position | Max Raw Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AF20 / AF20Q | Gen5 | Entry all-flash | 92 TB | Active / approaching EOSL |
| AF40 | Gen5 | Mid-range all-flash | 368 TB | Active / approaching EOSL |
| AF60 | Gen5 | Mid-high all-flash | 553 TB | Active / approaching EOSL |
| AF80 | Gen5 | Enterprise all-flash | 1,106 TB | Active / approaching EOSL |
| AF1000–AF9000 | Previous gen | Enterprise all-flash | Varies by model | EOSL reached |
Nimble HF Series (Hybrid / Adaptive Flash)
- HF20 / HF20H: Entry-level hybrid, dual controllers, ideal for SMB
- HF20C: HF20 with expanded scalability (up to 2 PB)
- HF40 / HF40C: Mid-range hybrid, higher throughput
- HF60 / HF60C: High-capacity hybrid, enterprise workloads
Nimble CS Series (Legacy: Pre-HPE Acquisition)
- CS1000 / CS1000H: Enterprise hybrid, EOSL reached
- CS3000: Mid-range hybrid, EOSL reached
- CS5000: High-performance hybrid, EOSL reached
- CS7000: Flagship hybrid, EOSL reached
- CS200 / CS300 / CS400 / CS500 / CS700: Earlier generations, EOSL reached
Nimble Secondary Flash & dHCI
- SF100 / SF300: Secondary flash arrays for backup/DR targets
- Nimble dHCI (disaggregated Hyperconverged Infrastructure) , Nimble storage + ProLiant compute with InfoSight management
What’s Included in Maven Nimble Support
Hardware Maintenance
- 24x7x365 break/fix coverage with under 15-minute initial response
- On-site field service with dedicated Nimble parts inventory
- Parts stocking: controllers (A/B), SSDs (SAS and NVMe), HDDs (NL-SAS for hybrid models), expansion shelves (ES1, ES2, ES3), adapter cards (10GbE, 25GbE, 16/32G FC), power supplies, NVDIMMs, fans, and cables
- Controller replacement with non-disruptive partner controller takeover coordination
- Drive hot-swap and Triple+ Parity RAID reconstruction monitoring
- Expansion shelf additions and shelf module replacement
NimbleOS Software & Operations Support
- Full NimbleOS troubleshooting across all supported versions
- CASL architecture management: understanding of Nimble’s sequential write log structure, cache behavior, and garbage collection, critical for performance troubleshooting
- Replication: synchronous replication, asynchronous replication, and snapshot-based replication, configuration, monitoring, failover/failback, and DR testing
- Snapshot management: volume snapshots, volume collection snapshots, application-consistent snapshots (VMware, SQL Server, Oracle), and snapshot scheduling
- Volume collections and protection templates: group management for consistent multi-volume operations
- Performance optimization: CASL cache analysis, flash pinning, adaptive write path tuning, and workload characterization
- Encryption: SmartSecure encryption at rest, key management configuration
- Multi-protocol connectivity: iSCSI and Fibre Channel host configuration, multipathing, and MPIO optimization
- NimbleOS upgrade guidance: compatibility assessment, upgrade path planning, and rolling upgrade coordination
- dHCI management: Nimble + ProLiant dHCI cluster operations (where applicable)
Why CASL Architecture Expertise Matters for Nimble Support
Nimble’s CASL (Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout) architecture is fundamentally different from traditional storage architectures. Instead of writing data randomly across disk platters, CASL writes sequentially: turning random I/O into sequential I/O at the storage layer. The SSD cache tier serves reads while HDDs (in hybrid models) handle sequential writes. This is what gives Nimble its legendary consistency and performance predictability.
But CASL also means that Nimble troubleshooting requires CASL-specific expertise. Cache eviction behavior, sequential write log management, garbage collection cycles, and the interaction between flash and HDD tiers in hybrid models all affect performance in ways that are unique to Nimble. An engineer who doesn’t understand CASL will misdiagnose performance issues, recommend wrong tuning parameters, and fail to identify the root cause of latency spikes. Maven’s Nimble engineers understand CASL internals and can troubleshoot at the architecture level, not just the symptom level.
Frequently Asked Questions: Nimble Maintenance
Will I lose InfoSight if I switch to Maven?
InfoSight is a cloud-based analytics platform tied to your HPE support contract. When you switch to third-party maintenance, you may lose InfoSight portal access. However, Maven’s engineers provide equivalent proactive monitoring and issue resolution directly. Many Nimble customers find that Maven’s direct-to-engineer model is actually faster than waiting for InfoSight to generate an alert and then routing through Pointnext support.
My Nimble CS5000 is past EOSL. Can Maven support it?
Yes. The CS-series was Nimble’s original product line before the HPE acquisition. Maven supports all CS-series models with dedicated parts inventory and NimbleOS engineers who have worked with these arrays since before HPE entered the picture.
Does Maven support Nimble replication for our DR environment?
Yes. Maven supports synchronous replication, asynchronous replication, and snapshot-based replication for Nimble arrays, including cross-generation replication between CS-series and AF/HF-series, and between Nimble and Alletra 6000 arrays.
What about Nimble dHCI? Can Maven support that?
Maven supports the Nimble storage component of dHCI environments. dHCI uses Nimble arrays as shared storage for ProLiant compute nodes, the storage side is standard NimbleOS. Maven covers the Nimble storage; the ProLiant compute nodes would need separate server support.
Is Alletra 6000 really just Nimble with a new name?
Essentially, yes. Alletra 6000 runs NimbleOS (evolved) on NVMe hardware derived from the Nimble architecture. The management experience has shifted to HPE’s Data Services Cloud Console, but the underlying storage architecture is Nimble DNA. Maven’s NimbleOS expertise applies directly to Alletra 6000.
Can Maven cover my Nimble and 3PAR under one contract?
Yes. Many organizations run 3PAR for Tier 1 SAN workloads and Nimble for Tier 2 or general-purpose storage. Maven covers both under a single contract with the right platform-specific engineers, NimbleOS specialists for Nimble, 3PAR OS specialists for 3PAR.
Nimble Reliability. Maven Expertise. Fraction of the Cost.
Get a free quote for your Nimble or Alletra 6000 environment. We’ll review your array configuration and show you what NimbleOS-expert support looks like at up to 70% savings.
Call: (877) 245-4087
Email: sales@mavenitsolutions.com
