We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and HPE Hyper Converged based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"For those basic uses, it's simple to set up and manage, and it seems to do a fine job."
"User friendly interface and straight forward implementation."
"StarWind has provided us with a top-notch, well-supported, robust vSAN offering when other vendors have moved to hyper-converged solutions that are outside of our average clients' reach from a financial and resource perspective."
"The most valuable feature is the fact that the nodes are Active/Active, and allow us to do upgrades on any node without any downtime."
"The StarWind VSAN is always up and allows us to move VMS to other nodes for maintenance, without interruption to service."
"Virtual SAN runs on iSCSI, which is free and easy to configure. It's easy to manage from StarWind's GUI console, and it only required a few extra switch ports."
"StarWind vSAN is a great solution to create a redundant two-node-only Hyper-V cluster, both for domain or workgroup scenarios."
"Starwind made it easy to deploy fully redundant, highly available storage at a low cost."
"The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited."
"The most valuable feature is the overall integration and just seeing the three different layers which make up the machine software. Altogether, it's something that I would say is much better than any other solution that I have experienced before."
"The program is stable."
"The solution is quite stable."
"The support is highly responsive."
"It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place."
"The integration with AWS is a valuable feature."
"The support team responds quickly."
"The product enables me to use any software or database."
"The most valuable features of this solution are fast deployment, security, and it is easy to upgrade."
"The HPE Hyper Converged solution is used in a hybrid cloud configuration. We assess the disk space and partition additional capacity."
"The scalability of this tool is very good. You can basically add more storage and seamlessly expand the current storage that you have."
"There are multiple advantages. Typically, being an all-flash storage, which is available through either SimpliVity or dHCI, the performance is much better because the IOPS goes high, so it's more powerful in terms of performance. Secondly, if I'm talking of SimpliVity Hyper Convergence solution from HPE, unlike the competition, even if three hard drives fail, you are still running the solution."
"One of the good features would be the fast backup solution Hyper Converged offers, which is more efficient compared to other vendors."
"The solution has many good features."
"I've found the data protection features the most valuable."
"I had to buy upgraded support, which was not a problem, but it wasn't a prorated amount, so I paid for the support, the full upgrade, but I only got a couple of months out of it because it was only good until renewal time."
"There needs to be more visibility on how long the cloud replication will take as there is no current ETA."
"A web management interface would be good, especially for those coming from other solutions that have one."
"If there are domain controllers inside the cluster, there needs to be some sort of logic allowing them to boot independently so all the rest of the domain clients can gain the authority they need to come online."
"I wish there was online support because email return takes a long time and a faster solution should be found."
"It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website."
"It would be nice to add the ability to use raw partitions instead of file containers."
"The reconnection of the attached drives upon a reboot could be improved."
"The storage capability must be improved."
"The support of containers needs to be improved. At present, it is limited to VMware. There needs to be direct communication with the hardware rather than through a hypervisor."
"Licensing restrictions can be frustrating."
"It would be great to get earlier access to beta builds because we have to develop providers on our own. The APIs and enablers for custom automation could also be improved."
"Compared to similar solutions, Dell PowerFlex is not cost-effective and has room for improvement."
"We're also running Hyper-V virtual machines. But we recently discovered that migration of the Hyper-V virtual machines is a bit challenging. Maybe if Dell EMC can come out with a tool that will make it very easy for us to migrate the Microsoft Hyper-V machine, that may be an improvement."
"Needs some more monitoring tools."
"I would like to see a more user-friendly interface."
"The solution needs to add a module or plugin of vCenter for clear monitoring and insights."
"The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced."
"Scalability is an issue because it becomes very expensive. When you need to upgrade memory, you have to upgrade memory across the nodes. Suppose a customer has gone with a three-node HCI solution, then to increase the memory, you have to do it across the three nodes."
"I would like to see more deduplication."
"I would like to see a more intuitive, user-friendly UI."
"Providing local technical support and improving the price are areas this service needs to consider improving."
"In my country, the biggest issue is probably pricing."
"I would like to see improvement in the hardware underneath it. Currently, it's a Gen9 DL380. One day, there will be a Gen10 DL380 and maybe they will have bigger or smaller sizes."
Dell PowerFlex is ranked 8th in HCI with 19 reviews while HPE Hyper Converged is ranked 10th in HCI with 34 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 8.2, while HPE Hyper Converged is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Dell PowerFlex writes "Infrastructure management solution that offers rapid provisioning of computer storage but the APIs and enablers for custom automation could be improved". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE Hyper Converged writes " Ensures end-to-end data security with redundancy measures and provides visibility into the system but node expansion challenges". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity and Red Hat Ceph Storage, whereas HPE Hyper Converged is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, HPE Alletra dHCI and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. HPE Hyper Converged report.
See our list of best HCI vendors.
We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
