

VxRail and Azure Local are competitors in the hyper-converged infrastructure and hybrid cloud market. VxRail may hold the upper hand for enterprises focusing on seamless VMware integration and simplified management, while Azure Local benefits Microsoft ecosystem users looking for hybrid cloud solutions.
Features: VxRail is appreciated for its integration with VMware, scalable solutions, and ease of management, including features like one-click upgrades and strong virtualization support. Azure Local benefits organizations using Microsoft's infrastructure, offering features such as software-defined networking and hybrid cloud capabilities, ideal for blending cloud and on-premises solutions.
Room for Improvement: VxRail users suggest improvements in pricing, supply chain, upgrade processes, and non-VMware environment support. Azure Local users report challenges with software-defined networking management, high initial setup costs, and stretched cluster functionality, suggesting a need for deployment and integration improvements.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VxRail is praised for its comprehensive customer support, with some room for improvement in response times and local support access. Azure Local benefits from integration with Azure but faces challenges in initial deployment complexity and support response times, striving to enhance service efficiency.
Pricing and ROI: VxRail is considered expensive but offers strong ROI through efficiency and reduced operational costs, appealing to those seeking integrated solutions. Azure Local's competitive pricing in the Microsoft ecosystem is offset by initial setup costs, with potential ROI for businesses leveraging existing Microsoft investments for cloud integration.
There has been some return on investment in terms of just time usability and reduction of footprint.
They have more advantages than VMware, especially for containerization, and they provide good support as well.
Not every support team member is very knowledgeable about Azure Stack HCI, creating delays in resolution.
A key area for improvement for VMware would be response time.
Dell has good technical support in Saudi Arabia.
The support is all provided by Dell, and it is quite good.
There are limitations, such as the inability to upgrade from a single to dual CPU in certain configurations.
Scalability is easy with VxRail.
Scalability is good with VxRail.
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.
After achieving good maturity, it became easier.
It is a very stable and mature product, with centralized management and upgrades being perfect for us.
The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing.
Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware.
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors.
VxRail could be enhanced through additional integration with NVMe technology.
It requires a very clean environment to proceed without issues.
Stabilizing the update procedure further would make it better.
The licensing is quite expensive because it's per call.
The cost varies for us as a large company because we receive special offers from Dell.
Purchasing VxRail is quite expensive compared to a simple Dell server.
Previously, the cost was higher, however, recent changes in VMware pricing have reduced it.
Azure Stack HCI has been very beneficial for disaster recovery operations.
The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent.
Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.
The features of VxRail that we find most useful for our customers include the easy update mechanism and the support for both VMware and hardware.
The most valuable feature of VxRail is the VxRail Manager, which centralizes resources like storage built with vSAN.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VxRail | 13.8% |
| Azure Stack HCI | 3.2% |
| Other | 83.0% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 4 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 1 |
| Large Enterprise | 3 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 42 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 43 |
| Large Enterprise | 56 |
Azure Local integrates on-premises infrastructure with cloud services, offering tools for software-defined networking, Kubernetes deployment, and VM management. It ensures cost efficiency through existing Microsoft licenses and robust disaster recovery, despite some complexities in deployment.
Azure Local is designed for businesses needing a blend of local and cloud services while remaining compliant with data privacy regulations. It excels in environments demanding high computing power, software-defined networking, and seamless scaling through Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure DevOps. Although it offers excellent VM management and analytics capabilities with Microsoft Fabric, deployment complexity and operational challenges remain. Businesses looking for a robust edge computing solution find significant benefits, especially with efficient local Azure storage and advanced hardware such as the latest processors and SSDs. There are areas needing improvements like multi-cluster management, stability, and Initial setup, which can be cumbersome. Pricing can be a concern against competitors, and enhanced support and training are needed for smoother user experience.
What are the key features of Azure Local?Azure Local finds application in sectors like manufacturing and maritime operations where robust edge computing helps in seamless data management and analytics. Factories benefit from compliance with data privacy rules while blended local and cloud services improve efficiency on ships, providing an alternative to VMware with support for virtual desktops and SQL Managed Instances.
VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance co-engineered by Dell Technologies and VMware, designed to optimize VMware environments by simplifying compute, storage, virtualization, and management.
Built on VMware vSAN software, VxRail ensures high performance, reliability, and flexibility. It supports a broad array of workloads, from business-critical applications to next-generation use cases. VxRail simplifies infrastructure management with powerful integration and seamless scalability, offering centralized management and user-friendly interfaces. Streamlined updates, robust lifecycle management, and one-click upgrades facilitate a user-centric experience that minimizes deployment complexity and staffing needs. However, its performance with disk deduplication, integration with public clouds, and processor support can be enhanced, along with pricing and licensing improvements.
What features define VxRail?Organizations across sectors such as finance, telecommunications, education, and manufacturing utilize VxRail for its scalability, ease of deployment, and infrastructure management capabilities. It aids in server and application hosting, storage, and virtualization management, often employing VMware integration. The platform is valued for its ability to consolidate IT components, support VDI solutions, and enhance cloud readiness and resource allocation.
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