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Azure Local vs Dell PowerFlex comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 21, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.8
Azure Local boosts ROI by reducing costs and support reliance, integrating well with Microsoft, enhancing business efficiency and engagement.
Sentiment score
5.8
Dell PowerFlex reduces Microsoft SQL licenses significantly, lowers maintenance costs, enhancing ROI and user satisfaction efficiently over four years.
There has been some return on investment in terms of just time usability and reduction of footprint.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.8
Azure Local's customer service is praised for effectiveness, but delays occur with resellers; Premier Support recommended for best outcomes.
Sentiment score
3.1
Dell PowerFlex support varies, with responsive tech assistance but issues like slow replacements and unknowledgeable staff reported.
They have more advantages than VMware, especially for containerization, and they provide good support as well.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
Not every support team member is very knowledgeable about Azure Stack HCI, creating delays in resolution.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
The level of support needs improvement as the front-line support staff lack knowledge when we raise cases.
System & Network Specialist at Alfaisal University
We do not have local Dell technical support.
IT Manager at ÜÇGE Shopfitting & Design
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.3
Azure Local provides scalable, reliable performance with effective cloud integration and seamless transitions, supporting numerous VMs and user demands effortlessly.
Sentiment score
7.0
Dell PowerFlex excels in scalability and flexibility, ideal for growing businesses needing effortless upgrades and large-scale deployments.
The scalability is very good and is one of the key features of Dell PowerFlex.
System & Network Specialist at Alfaisal University
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
Azure Local, stable and scalable with Hyper-V, has improved installation speed and matches VMware's performance despite minor issues.
Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerFlex offers remarkable stability, reliability, and performance, making it ideal for small to medium environments with high user satisfaction.
It does not feel like a well-oiled machine yet, with too many idiosyncrasies and insufficient documentation and integration, feeling more like software that is still in beta.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
After achieving good maturity, it became easier.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Local needs improvements in setup, management, integration, architecture, performance, disaster recovery, and competitive pricing.
Dell PowerFlex needs improved integration, user-friendly tools, better data protection, intuitive interfaces, and expanded cloud integration for user satisfaction.
Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
They could have more AI functionality in the future.
IT Manager at ÜÇGE Shopfitting & Design
The level of support needs improvement as the front-line support staff lack knowledge when we raise cases.
System & Network Specialist at Alfaisal University
As more customers start deployment, I believe use cases will develop, leading companies to consider that.
Enterprise Solution Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure Local users find costs high but competitive, with potential savings on total stack via Windows Server Datacenter rental.
Dell PowerFlex pricing is seen as competitive yet sometimes costly, with varying user experiences on cost-effectiveness and flexibility.
The licensing is quite expensive because it's per call.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
 

Valuable Features

Azure Local offers robust features for efficient networking, container management, cost-effectiveness, and seamless integration with Azure services.
Dell PowerFlex provides scalable, hyper-converged solutions with high performance, flexibility, and integration, ideal for business-critical applications.
Azure Stack HCI has been very beneficial for disaster recovery operations.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
Dell PowerFlex includes PowerFlex Manager, which integrates with this solution to provide complete orchestration; you can manage your entire hardware as well as software segment and application segment through a single pane of glass, making it very easy to use and manage.
Enterprise Solution Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The scalability is very good and is one of the key features of Dell PowerFlex.
System & Network Specialist at Alfaisal University
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Local
Ranking in HCI
13th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerFlex
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Azure Local is 3.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerFlex is 7.8%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerFlex7.8%
Azure Stack HCI3.2%
Other89.0%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

MC
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Experience with seamless cost-saving capacity, though integration and support need refinement
An area that could be possibly improved with Azure Stack HCI is the stretched cluster functionality, which was included in version 23H2 for disaster recovery purposes. However, this functionality has been put on hold for the next release, and Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing. They promise to bring back a significant or similar solution in a future release, but currently, there is no such functionality for stretched clusters between two sites in the latest versions of Azure Stack HCI, which poses a problem as we were looking forward to utilizing it. The integration with Azure Arc provides a unified management experience, but I find it to be fairly clunky. The integration exists, but it is not smooth or very easy to use. While they've started to integrate the two, the integration lacks maturity and makes it difficult to manage effectively. There are discrepancies between managing VMs through Azure Arc versus managing them directly, as changes made not using the Azure Arc integration are not easily reflected in Azure Arc. For instance, if I have an Arc-enabled VM and make changes to it outside the Arc interface, those changes may not be registered directly in Azure Arc, leading to issues in fully viewing the status and configuration of VMs depending on the management tool used. You either manage VMs fully through Arc or not at all because mixing the two methods results in incomplete visibility and inconsistencies.
Serdar De - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at ÜÇGE Shopfitting & Design
Initial setup has been straightforward and it has reasonable pricing
We are new to this, so we are still learning about the valuable features The solution is okay overall. It could be easier to learn. We haven't had any issues. They could have more AI functionality in the future.  I have been using the solution for six months. I have not encountered any problems…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack HCI?
This solution costs €10 per core per month. The whole stack is free if you are renting Windows Server Datacenter.
What needs improvement with Azure Stack HCI?
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors. The end-to-end encryption provided by Azure...
What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?
VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerFlex?
Dell PowerFlex is a premium software-defined infrastructure solution and while the initial investment may seem higher than traditional SAN or mid-tier HCI solutions, the long-term TCO is competitive.
 

Also Known As

No data available
VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Local vs. Dell PowerFlex and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,745 professionals have used our research since 2012.